ExtremeTech.com: "Car’s black box may send driver from Melrose Place to prison"

[seanhaight]

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/1373 ... -to-prison

When former Melrose Place actress Amy Locane goes on trial for vehicular manslaughter today, some of the testimony that could send her to prison will come from the black box in her SUV. It may show her driving 18 mph over the speed limit on a winding country road when she struck another car, killing the passenger and injuring the driver. Over the summer, a judge ruled that — in New Jersey at least — the information from the vehicle data recorder is reliable enough to be used in court. It could be used alongside other evidence, such as a blood alcohol test showing her with a 0.268 BAC, which is well above the legal limit.

Most every car now has a black box, or event data recorder, that gives a running narrative of events in the moments leading up to an accident: speed, acceleration, braking, yaw (spinning), and stability. It also shows what’s on or off — ranging from the windshield wipers and headlamps to traction control, stability control, or anti-lock brakes — painting an indirect picture of conditions at the time of an accident.

Lawyers for Locane-Bovenizer, who goes by her married name, said the recorders aren’t reliable. New Jersey superior court judge Robert Reed in June found that “the scientific reliability of event data recorder evidence is generally accepted within the automobile industry (the scientific community),” so it will be admissible at Locane’s trial. The prosecutor’s expert witness can interpret the recorder’s data to explain to jurors the cause of the accident but the witness ”is not qualified to offer opinion testimony as to the defendant’s guilt.”

Event data recorder
In June 2010, according to police reports, Locane rear-ended a minivan, then drove off in her Chevrolet Tahoe and struck a Mercury Milan Montgomery Township, NJ, as it was pulling into a driveway, killing the passenger and injuring the driver. The road is posted for 35 mph and the vehicle recorder will establish Locane was driving 53 mph. Even if that was the case, the defense has argued that Locane may have been chased by the minivan driver who believed Locane was drunk. Police do have other evidence, including the 0.268 BAC that, if correct, is spectacularly over the limit (0.08 BAC).

Who can see the data in the recorder? The car belongs to you, of course. However, if you read your owner’s manual, you’ll see a note to the effect that your privacy is always respected with regards to the black box except… if the authorities demand it (with a subpoena) or if you sue the automaker, say if you think the car was defective and caused a crash. In state trials such as this, the interpretation of the validity of the event data recorder could vary from state to state.

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/1373 ... -to-prison

[wade_b]

Amusingly, the photo of a laptop and an old Vetronix module connected to an old SDM was lifted from my website...that orange carpet was in the livingroom when we bought the house, and though it was hideous at first, I got used to it. Clearly the photo was for demonstrative purposes...no clamps, not even a bench to work on. Funny to see it, but I guess that's the nature of the interwebs: stolen fair and square.