VMM partner Richard Apat, head of the firm’s Personal Injury and Real Estate Litigation practices, writes a monthly column titled "Rich's Sidebar" in Port Washington News.
"Rich's Sidebar" is also syndicated in other Gold Coast newspapers, including Long Island Press, Port Washington News, Manhasset Press, and Great Neck News.
These articles are designed to offer insights in a variety of areas, and will feature other VMM attorneys as guest writers discussing other fields of expertise.
This month's column is "Your car has a little black box, just like a plane. Here’s how it works." It can be found online here and an expanded version below.
If your car is equipped with airbags, it will also have an Event Data Recorder (EDR) the “little black box”. The airbag system controller called an airbag control module (ACM) or restraint control module (RCM) typically houses the Event Data Recorder (EDR).
EDRs record various information like vehicle speed, braking, steering, occupants, seatbelt use, airbag deployment and other useful data. The information is constantly being recorded, and when a collision occurs, it is automatically saved. The trigger for an EDR to save its info is usually the deployment of air bags.
The information recovered from an EDR following a collision can be the difference between understanding who is or is not at fault for a collision. While automobile collisions often have witnesses, and drivers usually survive and can add their observations on what happened, EDR information can play a major role in automotive cases.
When the information has been recorded and downloaded, it reveals how fast a vehicle was going at the time of the collision, whether it was accelerating or decelerating. If somebody was making a turn when they hit the brakes, how hard and for how long they pressed the brakes, if they were using their seatbelt, and other information.
18-wheel trucks don’t have air bags, therefore you need a “hard brake event” for the data to be saved. When the truck operator slams on the brakes all the information that’s being recorded is saved and can later be downloaded.
In one of my cases, I represented a woman who was struck in her SUV on I-87 by a tractor trailer. In addition to suffering severe injuries, she had no memory of the collision, having sustained traumatic brain injury.
The truck operator was less than candid about how the collision occurred. However, our accident reconstructionist was able to interpret the information downloaded from the truck’s EDR and figured out what happened.
He determined that the truck suddenly decelerated, without the brakes being applied and the operator was still on the gas pedal. There was no attempt to turn the wheel, or apply the brakes. Based on his analysis, the accident reconstructionist provided an expert opinion that the operator hit my client’s vehicle when it was squarely in his lane, without ever slowing down or taking any evasive action. A clear case of operator error and gross negligence.
We concluded that the truck operator was either dozing off or otherwise distracted, and didn’t see the SUV for quite some time before slamming into it at 62 miles per hour. 62 mph was the maximum speed the truck was able to go (because of the governor) which was on the vehicle for the purposes of fuel conservation.
There were no eyewitnesses to this nighttime collision, making this a great example of how an event data recorder was instrumental in helping to prove liability when a person has been rendered unconscious or worse. It’s good to remember that your car has this little black box, and as long as it’s intact the information can be downloaded to determine how an automobile collision occurred.
Richard H. Apat is a member of Vishnick McGovern Milizio LLP – Attorneys at Law, where he heads the Personal Injury and Real Estate Litigation practices. He can be reached at rapat@vmmlegal.com and 516.437.4385 x152.
