Category: Car Accident

What are black boxes in cars?

You may remember us speaking on the topic of the Little Black Box. When we discuss this piece of equipment it is easy to call it a little black box because it is what most people tend to visualize it as, given its use in the aeronautics field. There are more than one data recorder in a commercially available vehicle. One is most accurately referred to as a Power Control Module (PCM). Another is the Airbag Control Module (ACM). Neither of these modules primary function is to record data, but it is a beneficial secondary function.

What data gets recorded in a car’s black box?

The data recorded by the PCM may vary from model to model and year to year. A sampling of the information recorded by the PCM includes timing of airbag deployment, speed of the vehicle, percent of accelerator application, Percentage of engine throttle, Brake operation, anti lock brake engagement, position of transmission and more.

Why is a black box used in car accident cases?

Why is this information helpful in reconstructing a car accident? It is helpful in that it is another set of data that can be compared to the physical markings at the scene, which if they correlate well together increases the confidence that the conclusions reached in reconstructing the crash are accurate. This is important because it assists in helping judges and juries determine who is at fault in the car collision and is therefore responsible for the harm done in the crash.

John P. Young –

What do semi tractor-trailer collisions, automobile collisions, drunk driving accidents and motorcycle collisions all have in common?  They are all likely to have data recording devices which can provide a huge amount of information about the vehicle involved in the crash.  I refer to this device as a black box.  I call it this because this is what we are accustomed to hearing when we hear about a plane crash.  It is a good descriptor because even though the data recording devices in land vehicles might not yet record as much information as a plane recorder, the technology is improving.  Depending how advanced the recorder is it probably records information such as the speed of the vehicle for twenty seconds prior to the crash.  This twenty seconds is likely to be broken into 10ths of seconds.  The device will also record acceleration, deceleration, timing of the application of brakes, whether the seatbelt was engaged, and much more.  The device will also record this information for several seconds after the crash.

The device is easily located within most cars, but it is best to have it accessed by an expert.  This insures that the information is properly preserved and admissible at any court proceedings. It is important to note that if the car is driven after the collision, the recorder will record over the information saved after the collision.  Therefore, if you are in a crash, and this information will be important, do not move the vehicles.  Allow them to be towed.  Contact an attorney immediately so that this vital evidence can be properly preserved.  We have a great deal of experience with these recording devices.  We know the experts who are trained to retrieve this information.  Give us a call so that we can help you and your family.

The first winter advisory of the year is in effect tonight, which leads us back to our annual be safe and avoid the crash annual missive. This is an especially good time to have a discussion, and maybe a test run, with your new drivers.  We all know how we knew everything when we started to driver, so the lecture alone is not likely to sink in on the teenager.  However, we have found that going to a nearby parking lot and practicing a few maneuvers was time well spent.  Cars handle differently in the snow, and new drivers have no experience with it.  What works on a dry road is likely to lead to a car crash in the snow.  In the parking lot, clear of other cars, have your driver practice applying the brakes, making turns and over correcting.  With front wheel drive cars, the driver has more control, but it still takes a little practice.

Remember to keep more distance between you and the other drivers.  Remember to make sure your tires are properly inflated and have proper treads. Give yourself more time to get to where you are going and above all, be patient.  I struggle with patience and have to remind myself that getting where I am going 10 minutes faster is not going to materially benefit me in anyway.  Heck, if I want to get there 10 minutes earlier, then I should start my journey 10 or even 15 minutes earlier.   Make sure your brakes are in good working order and all your lights are working.  It will help to have a bag of salt in the car if you get stuck.  Remember to keep an extra set of warm clothes in the car in case you get stuck and have to walk.  Do not assume that you will not need your coat for a short trip, that is when you will get stuck and you will need your coat more than ever.

Please, take your time, look out for the other driver and give your family the greatest gift you have to give, yourself with them at this special time of the year.

You and your family are in an automobile collision.  You suffer serious personal injury.  Your wife has broken bones, your child might have a spinal cord injury, you might not be able to get back to work.  You go to see your lawyer because you believe the other driver was at fault and caused the harm to your family.  You tell your lawyer that the other car was waiting to turn left into a parking lot, the car began to turn and you could do nothing to prevent the collision.  .  Your lawyer tells you have a good case and because he/she is a good lawyer that lawyer takes immediate steps to get statements from all the witnesses, gets a copy of the police report, puts the other driver’s insurance company on notice of your claim.  Your job, at that point is to let the lawyer worry about the case, and focus on recuperating from your injuries.  However one thing is bothering you.  Your lawyer said that the other driver failed to use “reasonable care” in the operation of their car and caused the collision.  Now what the heck does that mean?

Lawyers sometimes speak in a foreign language.  Reasonable care is generally a simple concept.  In terms of driving, it generally means to follow the rules of the road.  The rules of the road are those rules you learned in drivers education.  In the above circumstance it means that the other driver has the obligation to yield the right of way to approaching cars, letting them pass before turning.  Said another way, if the approaching car is so close as to present an immediate danger if the turning car turns, then the turning car must wait to turn. So why didn’t the lawyer just say that?  Well, lawyers are taught that the words “reasonable care “ are important words, and when we talk among ourselves, it is easy to throw that term around because we are used to it, and know what it means.  I think lawyers need to do a better job using ordinary language to describe what we mean instead of using terms that are difficult for the general public to understand.  The courts also believe this too and are trying to create jury instructions that use plain language, so jurors can do a better job at getting to the truth.

Ask your lawyer, whenever they use terms you do not understand, to tell you what they mean.  That will allow you to fully understand what is happening and it will cause your lawyer to slow down and think about what they are saying and how to say it more clearly.

There are a lot of differences between living in the country and living in the city.  For one, traffic is generally less congested in the country.  This fact alone does not relieve drivers in the country from using due care in the use of their car.  There are just different dangers in the country.  When a car is driving down the road and approaches an intersection, and the corn is high, and there is no stop sign, be careful, the sign might not yet have been placed by the county for either direction of traveler.  As no one approaching the can see anything of the intersecting road until  they are at the intersection, any driver should slow as they approach the intersection to make sure the other direction of travel is clear. Automobile collisions at blind intersections can be violent causing serious personal injury and even wrongful death.

At this time of year, the harvest is being completed.  This necessarily means that farmers, and their employees will be using the country roads to move their oversized equipment from field to field.  These slow moving vehicles generally take up more than just one lane of the road  and are moving slowly.  The farmer operating this equipment have the same obligation to follow the rules of the road as all other vehicular traffic.  The farm equipment must stop at stop signs, yield the right of way and keep a proper look out.  These vehicles are also required to display the slow moving symbols on their vehicles.  A failure to honor these rules of the road can, unfortunately result in serious injury and wrongful death.  In West Point, Indiana, yesterday, a combine being operated on a country road in order to move from one field to another apparently failed to stop at a stop sign and yield the right of way to a minivan transporting a family.  The collision caused the deaths of all three passenger of the van.  Our prayers go out to the family members of the lost family. This is an unfortunate example of how not following the rules of the road.  We implore all operators of equipment on the road to follow the rules of the road for your  own safety and for the safety of all other Hoosiers using those same roads.

We applaud and support the Motor Carrier Industry.  Without responsible owners and operators our economy could not function.  Billions and Billions of dollars worth of goods and supplies are transported back and forth across our great country every day.  The industry supplies us with the food we eat, the materials supporting our homes and the tools of business and commerce.  In order to achieve this wondrous feat, semi tractor-trailers, big rigs, large trucks and small trucks must share the road with passenger cars carrying families and individuals whose missions are essential to the well being and industry of society.   In order to accomplish both missions safely, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration imposes certain obligations on Motor Carriers.  Of the various rules applicable, we are here to talk about the inspection, repair and maintenance of the semi tractor-trailers on the road.  A poorly maintained big rig is a serious danger which likely will cause trucking collisions. Big truck accidents pose danger to the driver of the truck, but also pose significant risk to the small cars on the road resulting in serious injury including paralysis, brain injury, broken bones, and even wrongful death.  In order to help avoid semi tractor-trailer collisions, motor carriers are required to comply with the Inspection Repair and Maintenance regulations.

I set out the  applicable provision below for your ease of reference. As you can see, safety is the primary motivation behind the regulations.  Strict record keeping is also required to ensure compliance with these regulations.

Inspection, repair, and maintenance

§ 396.3Inspection, repair, and maintenance. (a) General. Every motor carrier and intermodal equipment provider must systematically inspect, repair, and maintain, or cause to be systematically inspected, repaired, and maintained, all motor vehicles and intermodal equipment subject to its control. (1) Parts and accessories shall be in safe and proper operating condition at all times. These include those specified in part 393 of this subchapter and any additional parts and accessories which may affect safety of operation, including but not limited to, frame and frame assemblies, suspension systems, axles and attaching parts, wheels and rims, and steering systems.(2) Pushout windows, emergency doors, and emergency door marking lights in buses shall be inspected at least every 90 days. (b) Required records. Motor carriers, except for a private motor carrier of passengers (nonbusiness), must maintain, or cause to be maintained, records for each motor vehicle they control for 30 consecutive days. Intermodal equipment providers must maintain or cause to be maintained, records for each unit of intermodal equipment they tender or intend to tender to a motor carrier. These records must include: (1) An identification of the vehicle including company number, if so marked, make, serial number, year, and tire size. In addition, if the motor vehicle is not owned by the motor carrier, the record shall identify the name of the person furnishing the vehicle;(2) A means to indicate the nature and due date of the various inspection and maintenance operations to be performed;(3) A record of inspection, repairs, and maintenance indicating their date and nature; and (4) A record of tests conducted on pushout windows, emergency doors, and emergency door marking lights on buses.

Code of Federal Regulations493

(c) Record retention. The records required by this section shall be retained where the vehicle is either housed or maintained for a period of 1 year and for 6 months after the motor vehicle leaves the motor carrier’s control.

We read, study and use these regulations in each and every case we handle for Hoosiers seriously injured in big truck accidents. Let us put our experience (58 years) to work for you.

In a car crash with a pedestrian, or bicyclist, the law of gross tonnage applies.  The law of gross tonnage states that when two bodies impact, the body with the larger gross tonnage will fare better in the collision that the body with the lighter gross tonnage. In any collision between a car and a pedestrian, or a bicyclist, the car will always fair better. 

Generally, the pedestrian or the cyclist will suffer serious personal injury, such as a brain injury, a spinal cord injury, or amputation, or even wrongful death.  A secondary effect of such a collision, as I tell my children when they see a child or other pedestrian using the road, is the guilt that will follow the driver, likely for the rest of their lives.

To avoid these collisions take a few precautions. 

In a residential area, make sure you have your vehicle under control and that you are traveling at a speed which will allow you to stop quickly, especially if you see children present. 

Treat children like a stop sign.  Children are unpredictable by nature, treating them like stop signs means that regardless of what they do, you will not hit them.

Drive with your lights on no matter the time of day.  In the daytime, your lights are an added advantage to being seen by pedestrians.  In the night your lights serve as both a beacon to the pedestrian, and allows you to see.

Do not out drive your lights.  Your lights, at night, only project so far.  In an urban area, travelling at a high rate of speed may cause your lights to be ineffective at allowing you to see far enough ahead to be able to stop or react quickly.

Never  drink and drive.  Call a cab.  Give a friend your keys.  Walk.  Just do not drink and drive.

Be careful, not only for the sake of the pedestrian and the cyclist, but for your own peace of mind.

Every railroad crossing should have either a stop sign, crossing bars or some type of warning system to alert drivers of oncoming . Unfortunately, in Indiana , not all do and a lot of drivers forget that when there is a meeting between a train and a motor vehicle , the motor vehicle is more likely to lose. Three ladies in Boone County this week were in a car that did not see the train and collided. Death and serious injuries resulted.  Anytime you cross a railroad track regardless of the presence or absence of signs or warning systems you are best to assume that there is a train coming until you are sure of the absence of a train. Collisions that can result in serious injuries or death can be prevented with a little common sense and extra caution.

In Indiana we must drive in the snow for three to five months out of the year.  Driving in the snow does not reduce the amount of care a driver must use in order to drive safely.  We are all bound to use reasonable care when driving.  This means that in snow, we must drive a little slower, give ourselves more time to get where we are going and put a little more distance between ourselves and the driver in front of us.  We must use care to remove the ice and snow from our windows, so that our vision is not  blocked.  We must remover accumulations of snow and ice from around our head lights and brake lights to increase our visibility and increase the chances of being seen by other drivers.  We must ensure that our tires have a good tread to give us as much traction as we can get on the snow.  We must slow down farther away from stoplights and stop signs so that we do not slide into the intersection.  We must make sure we have sufficient wiper fluid in the reservoir so that when the salt collects on our wind shield we can effectively wipe it away.

As always, we must not drink and drive.  Drunk driving collisions are more frequent in the snow because the drunk driver has even less control and reaction time.

Take your time, give yourself plenty of room and give the other driver a break.  If we do we can all get where we are going safe and sound.

I have been representing seriously injured Hoosiers for 23 years.  We handle all different types of automobile collision cases.  One thing that is common to most collisions, whether they be automobile crashes, truck crashes,  or semi tractor-trailer crashes is impaired sight.   We see serious personal injury arise out of drivers not seeing motorcyclists and turning into their path.  Many times people will not look over their left shoulder to check their blind spot, enter the lane to their left and hit the car properly in that lane.  People turning right at an intersection will look to their left to see if there are any oncoming car, but forget to look back to the right to see if there is a pedestrian.

.A couple of tips can help you drive safely.  Make sure you have a scraper in your car so you can clear all the ice off your front, rear and side windows  You have seen the guy driving with just a small area of the windshield cleared and none of the other windows cleared.  This guy will run into something, because he can’t see.  Keep plenty of washer fluid in the reservoir.  Salt on the road builds up fast on the wind screen.  When the sun hits that salt, you are blind.  This is especially true when you are driving on the highway with the spray from large trucks covering your wind screen. Make sure you do not have any signs impairing your rear sight line. 

Being able to see reduces the risk of causing a collision and seriously injuring, or causing the wrongful death, of your fellow Hoosiers.

We all know that Jets have a “Black Box” that is the subject of intense searching after any plane crash.  The reason for the “black box” search is because the “black box” is a data recorder.  It records information about the operation of the jet and its pilots and can help investigators reconstruct the events leading up to a crash and will, hopefully, assist investigators in figuring out what happened.  Fewer people know that all modern cars are equipped with a “black box” or more particularly a data recorder.  In automobile crashes causing serious personal injury, the data recording device may be the difference between knowing what actually happened in the crash and what witnesses say happened in the crash.

In my line of work as a auto accident attorney, we know that eye witness accounts of a collision often vary greatly about what happened in the car accident. Scientific studies.     Barbara Tversky, in her article “The Problem with Eyewitness Testimony”, Stanford Journal of Legal Studies, April 1999, observed, “The mere fault of being human results in distorted memory and inaccurate testimony.”  We humans are subject to memory bias and the introduction of false memories which interfere with our ability to accurately remember and repeat exactly what we have seen. So, what can be done about this problem?  Retrieve the information from the data recording device for the cars, or trucks involved in the collision.

Modern automobile data recording devices record up to 20 seconds of information before any crash.  The data recorded can include whether the passengers of the car were wearing seatbelts, the car speed at any point in that 20 seconds, the acceleration of the car in that 20 seconds, the percent of the engine throttle and gas pedal, when the brakes were activated, when the antilock braking device was activated and more. This information is very important, but any accident expert worth their salt will collect all the objective evidence at the scene of the car crash and compare it to the data on the recording device.  The objective evidence includes the damage to each car, the final resting place of the cars after the impact, the direction the cars went upon impact, and other information.  When the “black box” data matches up with the objective evidence at the scene of the collision the jury can be very confident that the data recording device is telling the accurate story about what happened in the crash.  This is very important when eyewitnesses give contradicting versions of what happened.