Is Your Car’s ‘Black Box’ Data Fair Game In An Accident?

July 16th, 2012. By AbiK

Bet you didn’t even realize your car might have a ‘black box’—one of those event data recorders (EDR) that you usually hear in reference to rescue workers mining through some airplane wreckage after a flight’s gone down. Well, while it’s not required by law, if your car has airbags, there’s a very good chance it also has an EDR in it (you can check your owner’s manual to find out, though the NHTSA states 91.6 percent of light vehicles already had them as of 2011).

And, depending on what state you live in, the information that could be recorded on your EDR in the event of a car accident could virtually be fair game for police or insurance companies.

The name ‘EDR’ comes from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) where a car EDR is defined as:

“A function or device installed in a motor vehicle to record technical vehicle and occupant information for a brief period of time (seconds, not minutes) before, during and after a crash for the purpose of monitoring and assessing vehicle safety system performance. For instance, EDRs may record (1) pre-crash vehicle dynamics and system status, (2) driver inputs, (3) vehicle crash signature, (4) restraint usage/deployment status, and (5) post-crash data such as the activation of an automatic collision notification (ACN) system.”

While a lot of folks refer to the EDR as the more  commonly heard ‘black box’ from airplanes, trains and ships—there is a difference.  A black box data recorder records information continuously during the entire time the airplane or train is in operation. By contrast, a car’s EDR only records the brief period of time just before an accident would occur.

So speaking of a possible car crash, who exactly has access to that EDR data if you should have a car accident? Currently, 13 states have privacy laws in place that protect EDR data. However, according to the NHTSA, “Courts can subpoena EDR data through court orders, and some States collect data under their existing State laws governing crash investigations. Some insurance policies may have contract terms related to data collection from EDRs.”

And EDR data has been used in some court cases as evidence.

But car accident lawyer Rex Parris, of R. Rex Parris Law Firm in Lancaster, CA doesn’t think EDR’s are a bad thing. Parris, who’s also the mayor of Lancaster, CA, was recently interviewed by KTVU Channel 2 News on the subject. According to the KTVU interview, Parris says, “It gives us a lot of information that would shorten trials, and—in many, many cases—remove the necessity of a trial.”

“It has the effect of keeping people honest,” said Parris. ” You know, you’re not gonna lie about your speed. You’re not gonna lie about what happened, because there’s evidence saying what happened.”

California, the state in which Parris practices law, is one of the 13 states with laws protecting EDR data privacy. California law prohibits any download of that data without the owner’s permission or a court order. Aside from California, the other states with such privacy laws are: Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, North Dakota, New Hampshire, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, Virginia and Washington.

But state laws vary and there is currently no standard for car manufacturers regarding which event data the EDRs should record. As such, there is a bill winding its way through Congress right now—Senate Bill 1813 (Section 31406)—aka MAP-21—that seeks to not only mandate installation of EDRs in all new cars starting in 2015, but also standardize which events the EDRs can capture. The bill already passed the Senate in March.

In terms of data privacy, should the bill go through, it specifies that the vehicle’s owner would have access to the data on collected on it—here are the Limitations on Information Retrieval from the bill:

(1) OWNERSHIP OF DATA- Any data in an event data recorder required under part 563 of title 49, Code of Federal Regulations, regardless of when the passenger motor vehicle in which it is installed was manufactured, is the property of the owner, or in the case of a leased vehicle, the lessee of the passenger motor vehicle in which the data recorder is installed.

(2) PRIVACY- Data recorded or transmitted by such a data recorder may not be retrieved by a person other than the owner or lessee of the motor vehicle in which the recorder is installed unless–

(A) a court authorizes retrieval of the information in furtherance of a legal proceeding;

(B) the owner or lessee consents to the retrieval of the information for any purpose, including the purpose of diagnosing, servicing, or repairing the motor vehicle;

(C) the information is retrieved pursuant to an investigation or inspection authorized under section 1131(a) or 30166 of title 49, United States Code, and the personally identifiable information of the owner, lessee, or driver of the vehicle and the vehicle identification number is not disclosed in connection with the retrieved information; or

(D) the information is retrieved for the purpose of determining the need for, or facilitating, emergency medical response in response to a motor vehicle crash.

The bill, however, still needs to get through the House. So stay tuned.

 

Tags: Car Accident, Car Accident Fault, Consumer Privacy, EDR, Event Data Recorder, Insurance Company, KTVU Channel 2, R Rex Parris Law Firm

This was posted on Monday, July 16th, 2012 at 12:20 pm and is filed under Automotive, Lawyers . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.