Black Box Technology Tracks Your Driving
July 16 -- When Walter Rhoads' Corvette slammed into the rear of a Ford Escort in Pennsylvania last summer, killing William Stott, it took police little time to determine the cause of the crash: a drunken driver traveling at excessive speed.
But police made their case against Rhoads even stronger with the help of a little known but reliable witness — the Corvette's airbag computer or so-called black box. Investigators were able to download information like acceleration, braking and engine speed from the airbag computer directly to a laptop.
"It did help our investigation," said Montgomery County detective Rob Turner. "The black box gave us 106 miles per hour." It also showed the driver hit the brakes only two seconds prior to impact.
Black box technology has been in all GM cars and many others since 1999. It got there by accident, as a kind of quality control, recording what had caused airbags to open.
But lawyers and police have begun to realize that the information in the airbag monitors can stand up in court. Like its counterpart in planes, black boxes in cars record crash data that can be retrieved by investigators after an accident.
"I'm gonna tell our people that every time they have probable cause to believe that a crime occurred, and we're doing accident reconstruction, to see if there's a box, and see if we can use it to buttress our findings," said Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor.
Data Can Save Lives in Accidents, Save Money
The latest black box technology extends beyond accident reconstruction to 911 assistance. Ford is testing sensor devices on 500 police cars outside Houston. After an accident, Ford's system relays to 911 information such as the resting position of the vehicle, number of occupants, seatbelt usage and exact location using a Global Positioning System.
"This means we can send the right resources to the accident," said John Melcher, deputy director of the Greater Harris County 911 Emergency Network. "If this technology rolls into normal production models, we're gonna save many lives."
