By ERIN MATHEWS

Salina Journal

Drivers involved in crashes that kill or seriously injure someone are increasingly likely to hear from a new witness when the case goes to court -- their own car.

The black box has been integral to finding the cause of airline crashes for years, but many drivers don't realize similar technology now resides under the hood of their newer model vehicle.

By Sept. 1, 2012, all new cars manufactured are required to have a publicly readable black box -- otherwise known as an event data recorder or air bag control module.

In 90 percent of crashes

Lt. Terry Kummer, of the Kansas Highway Patrol, said as people have replaced their older model cars, it has become more common for vehicles involved in crashes to have data recorders that can be accessed. He estimated that 90 percent of crashes involve a vehicle with an event data recorder.

"We're really starting to use it," he said. "Within the past three years, it's started taking off."

The event data recorder shows what a car was doing in the final five to nine seconds before the air bags deploy.

"It's a tremendous help in reconstructing a collision," Kummer said. "We don't totally rely on it, but it's another tool we use in the reconstruction process."

Kummer, who is based in Colby, is the state coordinator of KHP's Critical Highway Accident Response Team, which consists of seven troopers statewide who have been trained to read and analyze air bag module data.

In 2010, Kummer said, the KHP investigated 183 fatality crashes and 1,973 crashes in which someone was injured.

Troopers also provide support and assistance with crashes investigated by local police departments.

Topping 100 mph

Kummer said, about a month ago, KHP downloaded EDR data for a police department that showed a Dodge Charger that rear-ended a stopped sport utility vehicle in a small town was going 116 miles per hour with the accelerator depressed seconds before the collision. The vehicle had slowed to 63 mph by impact, he said.

The kind of detailed, easily understandable information an EDR can provide is a real asset for proving how a crash occurred, said Rande Repp, a master patrol officer who does accident reconstruction for the Salina Police Department.

"When there are no skid marks and no tree that was struck, all you have is a wrecked vehicle, and you have to figure out what happened," Repp said. "The EDR can tell you a lot."

Used in court

The recorders provide information about brake use, speed, percent of throttle, engine revolutions per minute and seat belt use that consistently has been ruled accurate and reliable in court proceedings, said Shawn Gyorke, crash data retrieval analyst and owner of Crash Data Services, of Algonquin, Ill. Gyorke, who analyzes EDR data, has testified as an expert witness in criminal and civil trials throughout the Midwest.

Recording devices in many models of Ford, Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicles became publicly readable between 2001 and 2007, he said, and Toyota vehicles are expected to make public access available this year.

Kummer said KHP also can read certain models of Isuzu, Mitsubishi and Suzuki vehicles.

"It's a form of evidence which is clear, it's precise and it's impartial," Gyorke said. "The black box doesn't care. It's impartial. It just tells you what it is."

He said before the availability of EDR data, accident reconstructionists could calculate a vehicle's speed at impact, but it was often more difficult to verify what the vehicle may have been doing immediately before a crash. He said since the advent of anti-lock brakes, skid marks are not always as clear.

The EDR provides new information, such as at exactly what second a driver lets off the gas and depresses the brake.

"We have seen downloads that show the person has literally got the pedal to the floor, and they're going 100 miles an hour seconds before impact," he said. "It's hard to argue that you didn't know how fast you were going or weren't trying to go that fast in the face of information like that."

EDR data recently was analyzed and found not to support the claims of several Toyota and Lexus drivers that their vehicles' accelerators became stuck. The data did support the claims of drivers who said their floor mats got stuck on the accelerator, but data showed no correlation with other claims of stuck accelerators. Drivers had mistaken the accelerator for the brake, the data showed.

Doing the math

Kummer said EDR data does not replace the need for traditional methods of accident reconstruction, but it serves to reaffirm what troopers and police figure out through reconstruction methods.

"It helps us prove that our calculations are correct," he said. "I can talk all day about how I calculated the speed from skid marks, but when I lay this down, it gives jurors a clear picture. It's very compelling evidence versus the traditional method of calculating speed."

In some crashes, a major power interruption can cause the module not to record or to give only partial information, Kummer said. However, there's usually still enough power in the circuit for the one second needed to burn the data into the disk, he said.

KHP has acquired two Crash Data Retrieval Systems -- computers that can retrieve information from event data recorders in a variety of makes and models of cars. Each year, the agency invests about $2,000 in software updates and new connecting cables to make retrieval of information from new models possible, Kummer said.

Introduced in late '90s

The EDR, which controls deployment of air bags, first became readable in vehicles built by General Motors as far back as the late 1990s, Gyorke said. Providing information about factors that may have contributed to a crash is not the primary function of the EDR, but its information recording capabilities were installed because they were useful to vehicle manufacturers for monitoring systems and ensuring that they were working correctly, he said.

Gyorke said in the early part of the past decade, only a select group of people had been trained and had the equipment to retrieve crash data, but it has become increasingly common.

"It's difficult for a juror to sit and listen to an accident reconstructionist testify about momentum analysis or energy analysis using traditional accident reconstruction techniques to explain what led to an impact," Gyorke said.

"This is the totally opposite end of the spectrum. It's just, 'Here's your printout. Here's what the vehicle sensed.' It's a very easy, simplified and dramatic means of relating speed to people."

Information contained in the EDR has consistently been ruled by courts as belonging to the vehicle owner. To access the EDR, law enforcement must get consent from the vehicle owner or get a search warrant, Gyorke said.

Kummer said KHP would seek a warrant if consent wasn't given in any crash involving serious injury or death.

"Be careful what you do, because we're going to find out," Kummer said. "Who knew your car was going to tell on you?"

n Reporter Erin Mathews can be reached at 822-1415 or by e-mail at emathews@salina.com.