Vehicle Black Box Data

I was recently involved in a case involving a tractor trailer and an elderly driver. The elderly driver was rear ended by the tractor trailer and suffered injuries which left her unable to recall the facts of the crash. Interestingly, in an attempt to limit liability, the trucking company hired a lawyer to offer opinions regarding our client's speed at impact. This issue had never been raised prior to trial, so we had not had our client's vehicle's black box data downloaded. The case settled and we ended up not having to hire an expert to provide the information for us. Fortunately, we still had the vehicle, so this would not have been a problem.

However, in some cases the data contained in a vehicle's "black box" can be crucial to the case- it can indicate things such as braking, seatbelt use, speed at the time of crash, warning lights on vehicles etc. Unfortunately, in many cases, the vehicle is unknowingly sold or released to the insurance company, or an inexperienced attorney ends up hiring the wrong expert to download the data, ruining its potential admissibility at trial. Furthermore, there are few commercially available systems that can be used to download the data. It appears help is on the way, but is more than three years away. As of September 2012, NHTSA regulations (49 C.F.R. 562) will require vehicle manufacturers to provide commercially available systems which can be used to retrieve event data recorder (black box) information. Moreover, the information will have to be available in a standardized format. At present, the Bosch Vetronix retrieval system is the only commercially available system. However, the Bosch system cannot be used on all vehicles.