Vehicle Black Box Evidence

Michigan car accident lawyers must fully investigate the causes of a car crash to prove that the defendant drove in a negligent manner and was at fault in the car accident. This is done through many means, including photographing all evidence, interviewing eyewitnesses and hiring a private investigator, and then examining evidence from the vehicles.

Many late model automobiles and trucks are installed with a computer called an Event Data Recorder (EDR), also often referred to as a “Black Box.” This is the automotive version of the airplane “black box.” When triggered by an impact, accident or similar event, the EDR records certain information about the accident. The information recorded can include various events in the few seconds preceding a crash, including speed, airbag deployment, braking, RPMs, and even whether the driver’s seatbelt was fastened. Thus, the information from these devices can be collected after a crash and analyzed by an expert to help determine what the vehicles and drivers were doing before, during, and after the accident.

In a lawsuit involving claims for injuries sustained in an automobile accident, the data obtained from the EDR can be helpful in establishing whether or not the negligent party was speeding, attempted to avoid the collision, attempted to brake, etc. (See e.g. Harris v. Weaver, unpublished opinion per curiam of the Court of Appeals, decided August 17, 2006 [Docket No. No. 265617, No. 265618] In civil lawsuits, EDR data has been admissible and deemed reliable under universally accepted evidentiary standards. (See Bachman v. General Motors Corporation, 332 Ill. App. 3rd 760 (4th Dist 2003).

In order to use the information from the EDR as evidence in a personal injury lawsuit, a qualified expert first must download the information from the EDR. It will also be necessary to assess factors that could affect the reliability of the data (e.g tire size). This type of evidence can be very helpful to establish that a particular Defendant acted negligently. Thus it can serve as a powerful tool in maximizing damages in a settlement where injuries are established but liability is strongly contested. Our law firm has been successful in using EDR data to obtain significant settlements in several automobile accident lawsuits in Michigan.

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