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Autos'
black-box data turning up in courtrooms
So-called
''black boxes,'' which have provided valuable information
in determining what has caused airliners to crash, are now
being used to help tell what happened in automobile accidents.
And
information from the computerized devices is increasingly
finding its way into civil and criminal courtrooms, where
judges and juries are trying to determine who is at fault
in car crashes.
Some
prosecutors and defense lawyers say that the data from black
boxes, which are on about 40 million cars in the USA, provide
an unbiased account of accidents. But privacy advocates
are raising warnings about how information from the boxes
is being used.
In a
trial that opened here this week, , prosecutors hope that
measurements obtained from the black box on Edwin Matos'
2002 Pontiac Trans Am will tell what happened seconds before
his car slammed into another one occupied by two teenage
girls.
Matos,
46, is accused of driving drunk when the collision occurred
on Aug. 17, 2002, in Pembroke Pines, Fla. The girls were
killed. Prosecutors say that black-box evidence will show
Matos was driving four times the posted speed limit of 30
mph at the time of the crash.
Matos
has pleaded not guilty. His attorney, Roberto Stanziale,
plans to call the black-box data into question.
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