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Snitch or savior? 'Black box' for cars stores crash data
By JEFF SMITH
07.08.2003
In Colorado, Jefferson County Deputy Sheriff Kyle Smith was driving last January looking for drunk drivers when his 2001 Ford Crown Victoria collided with a tractor-trailer. The truck was backing up after missing an exit ramp, according to a State Patrol report. Smith suffered serious injuries, was hospitalized for 12 days and is only now preparing to go back to work.
Although there was a witness — a fellow deputy in a car nearby — an expert has since been called in by Smith's attorney to help reconstruct the accident by looking at information from an event data recorder — the "black box" of the auto industry.
Automakers have been quietly equipping cars with event data recorders, for years to discern safety information.
The recorders — similar in concept to the 'black boxes' in airplanes — have been used in long-haul trucks to keep track of how many hours the trucks were on the road, in accordance with federal laws designed to keep truckers from driving without taking a break. The recorders also have been used in racecars.
But the devices have become more sophisticated and, increasingly, the information — which provides a kind of DNA of an accident — is being used in civil and criminal cases to supply key evidence about how fast people were driving, whether their seat belts were buckled, when they applied the brakes and other information.
In Florida recently, prosecutors used a data recorder to help convict a man of manslaughter and vehicular homicide. The device showed he was driving his 2002 Pontiac Trans Am over 100 mph.
Surprised to hear about the "black boxes"? You're not alone: A recent survey by the Insurance Research Council found barely a third of car buyers were aware a recorder may be installed in their vehicle. Many car salespeople also plead ignorance.
While the devices have obvious benefits for safety and reconstructing accidents, many say that they also raise privacy issues — even going as far to whisper "Big Brother."
Stephen Keating, executive director of the Privacy Foundation, a nonprofit group that studies privacy issues, said one of the main concerns is whether the devices and their ramifications are being adequately disclosed to consumers.
"Consumers should be told not only that this data can be recorded, but it can also be used by police and insurance companies," Keating said.
One can argue this is a subtle step toward a "surveillance society," Keating added.
An estimated 25 million passenger vehicles including nearly all General Motors vehicles and most Fords, have the recorders.
GM has a section devoted to the devices on its Internet site under "safety." But the company calls the devices "sensing and diagnostic modules.
GM states that beginning in 1974, air-bag-equipped vehicles have recorded "crash-related data" for an impact that caused an air bag to deploy.
"Other manufacturers also use recording systems with their air bags," GM noted. "Many of these systems also record data during 'near-deployment' events such as impacts that are not severe enough to deploy the air bags."
GM said that in 1992 it installed sophisticated crash data recorders on 70 Indianapolis 500 race cars. Then, beginning with the 1999 model year for passenger vehicles, GM added the capability to record pre-crash vehicle speed, engine revolutions per minute, the throttle position and whether the brakes were engaged.
All of that data is stored in the vehicle's air bag unit.
The company said that it "strives to protect the privacy of its customers" and its policy is to retrieve the data "only with the vehicle owner or lessee's permission" or in response to a request from a law enforcement official or a court order such as search warrant. (Ford has a similar policy).
Consumers can check to see if their vehicle is equipped with a "sensing and diagnostic module" by checking their owner's manual.
© 2000 Scripps Howard News Service.
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