Accident reconstruction research

Research / Crash Data Retrieval / CDR / EDR

'Black Boxes' in Cars are the New Eyewitness

By Erin Holmes Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted on April 28, 2001

Think you're alone in your car? Think again.
The "black boxes" that long have defined the aftermath of airplane crashes have hit the highway on four wheels, and there's a good chance there's one in your car.

Event data recorders - also called recordable airbag modules and installed by automakers to monitor air bag deployment - can be a perfect eyewitness to traffic accidents, with the ability to take clear snapshots of what happened before a crash.

That includes how fast you were driving, whether you accelerated through that red light, whether you buckled your seatbelt and if and when you braked.

The accurate accident account provided by one such device is being called solid evidence in the case against a hearse driver who last fall crashed into Arlington Heights Police Officer Charles Tiedje's squad car. The hearse driver, Aleksandr Babayev, pleaded guilty to running a red light when the Oct. 13 collision occurred, but insisted he had blacked out beforehand and remembered nothing.

The hearse's data recorder has proved otherwise, tracking events for 5 seconds before the crash and, as the devices have begun to do, playing a key role in accident reconstruction.

About the size of a deck of cards, the small silver box typically sits under the driver's seat, in the passenger compartment or under the dashboard. But few drivers even know they're there.

"People know that when there's an airplane crash, (the black box) will be looked at ... Eventually people will find that out about automobiles, too," said Illinois State Police Sergeant John Clark, a certified crash
reconstructionist.

Since airbag modules are the triggers that decide when to inflate an airbag, all vehicles with air bags have some sort of that device. They've been a part of cars for more than 20 years, but not until the late 1990s were they able to record pre-crash data.

"The information that can be downloaded tells a lot more than the witnesses can remember because these crashes happen so quickly," said Terry Rhadigan, safety communications manager at General Motors.

The recorder gathers information when airbags are deployed or nearly deployed - usually during a collision, when the change in velocity is at least 20 mph. They don't record information when you're simply traveling down the highway.

Only devices in some models made by General Motors allow crash investigators to download the data, said James Kerr, associate programs manager at Vetronix Corp., which provides the software. Data from recorders in some Ford vehicles will become accessible sometime this year, he said. Other companies surely will follow, as the devices become more standard in automobiles and develop reputations as reliable tools that could revolutionize accident reconstruction.

"It's going to enhance what we do," Clark said. "It can't tell us everything, but it's really a step in the right direction." Hindering the progress is the fact that data gathered from the boxes is tricky to interpret, software to download the information is expensive and few officers have been adequately trained in the process. But in the Tiedje case, the little black box few knew about is making its way into civil court, with an intricate look at the seconds before Babayev's hearse nearly took an officer's life.

The device's data, downloaded with the help of General Motors engineers, says Babayev actually accelerated in the seconds before the collision, reaching a peak speed of 63 mph - nearly 20 mph faster than the posted speed limit - and then, one second before the crash, braking.

"This black box is such a breath of fresh air because it disputes completely what (Babayev) said," said Tim Tiedje, Charles Tiedje's brother. Tim Tiedje had seen a television story on event data recorders months before his brother's accident, and suggested lawyers check out whether the hearse had one on board.

It did.

And Tim Tiedje said it proved a blessing, because his brother couldn't remember anything from the crash and eyewitness accounts can't be considered flawless.

"Lucky for my brother, he had in fact the best witness you could have on this planet, something that isn't affected by the elements and doesn't lie," Tim Tiedje said. "In this case, it proved my brother ... was as innocent as innocent can be when that hearse changed our lives forever." The evidence will be used in a lawsuit filed by the Tiedje family against Babayev, which seeks more than $50,000 in damages and names his company, Weinstein Family Services Inc. and Weinstein Brothers Inc., as defendants. "He claims he had blacked out ... well the black box shows he was in control of the motor vehicle," Arlington Heights Police Captain John Fellmann said. "It would be hard to conclude someone unconscious would be able to perform these maneuvers."

Attorney Robert Clifford, representing the Tiedje family , said this is the first time he's seen a car's black box data used in an actual case - and said the pre-crash information on Babayev's acceleration and braking should make the case an easier one.

"It's a coincidence of life," Clifford said. "I've said it before - someone was looking over Chuck Tiedje's shoulder." But while it proved beneficial in this case, the event data recorder has stirred questions about privacy issues, especially since many drivers don't know they're being "monitored."

But since the devices largely are used by automakers to test whether airbags are deploying correctly, the "black box" isn't necessarily something everyone needs to know about, Clark said. And intrusive or not, Tim Tiedje always will consider the event data recorder information a savior.

"It's a touchy thing, but it's the truth," Tim Tiedje said. "If a piece of equipment can help get to the truth, good or bad for whichever party, then I think it's a good thing."

The lawsuit is in the early stages of litigation. Clifford does not expect it to reach trial until at least 2002.

* Daily Herald staff writer Graham Buck contributed to this report.