INS IDE SCOOP
PROOF IS IN THE LITTLE BLACK BOX EOBRs can make a big difference in accident litigation
BY ADAMM. PACE Guest Writer
Most commercial trucks are equipped
with black box data recorders (commonly referred to as Event Data Recorders, or EDR’s) that recorded data such as accelera- tion, speed, braking, and bag deployment in the few seconds before and after a wreck. This data is often the most reliable and objective evidence of the events leading up to the crash, because the boxes can’t be turned off or disabled and most require special soft- ware to access and read. If you’re involved in litigation over an accident, you can expect the other side will be asking for your black box data, and failure to preserve it can result in court-imposed penalties to both you and
your lawyer. But did you know that most newer passenger vehicles have black boxes too? According to the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration, at least 64 percent of cars surveyed in 2005 had black boxes installed, and 96 percent of 2013 models come equipped with them standard. In the future, all vehicles will be required to have them. The United States Senate recently passed Senate Bill 1813 (know as Map-21) which mandates automakers install black boxes in all passenger vehicles sold in the U.S. beginning with model year 2015. This means there is a good chance the passenger vehicle involved in your accident had a black box which could undermine the driver’s ver-
sion of events and show whether he/she was speeding, failed to brake, etc. Be sure to take the proper steps to secure this critical data for your defense. Have your lawyer send a letter to the
other side as soon as possible telling them to preserve the black box data and then request it when your case moves into discovery. If they fail to preserve and produce it, the court could impose penalties and even infer that the data was harmful to their case. UT
For questions about this article please contact Adam Pace at (801) 322-9265, or any of the transportation practice group lawyers at Snow, Christensen & Martineau. Check us out on the web at
www.scmlaw.com.
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