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Accident Reconstruction Research:
Crash Data Retrieval (CDR)/Article
'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.
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