A car’s black box stores technical vehicle information immediately before, during, and after a crash. This information can be extremely useful in understanding exactly what caused an accident and how the vehicle and driver responded.
In some cases, this data might be used to determine who was legally at fault for the accident. Keep reading below to learn all the details about black boxes and whether your car has one.
What Is a Black Box?
A black box is the common term for what is technically known as your vehicle’s “Event Data Recorder” or “EDR.” The EDR in most vehicles is contained inside the airbag control module. Most people have heard of black boxes in airplanes before, but not everyone realizes that their car likely has a black box as well.
However, there are some important distinctions between the black box in a car and the black box in an airplane. The black box in an airplane records continuously, but your car’s black box only records after a certain triggering event. A triggering event could include things like sudden deceleration, airbag deployment, or other things that are likely to be associated with a car accident.
What Type of Information Does a Car’s Black Box Record?
Your car’s black box records extensive information from sensors all over the vehicle. When analyzed by the right tools, this information can help provide a more complete and accurate picture of what happened during the crash. It can also uncover driver behavior or actions they took immediately prior to or during an accident. This type of data can be extremely beneficial when trying to prove negligence or other liability after a car accident.
Some of the common types of data recorded by your car’s black box include:
- Vehicle speed
- Whether the brakes were applied and how hard they were applied
- ABS system engagement
- Throttle position/accelerator pedal position
- Steering wheel angle
- Whether seat belts were buckled
- Airbag deployment status and timing
- Force of acceleration or deceleration
- Engine speed (RPMs)
- Stability control system status
While the data that your black box records is quite extensive, these devices generally do not record audio or video data. This means that the black box in your vehicle is not recording your conversations that take place in your car.
Does My Car Have a Black Box?
Yes, your car most likely has a black box. Under current National Highway Traffic Safety Administration mandates, nearly all vehicles manufactured after 2014 are required to be equipped with an event data recorder. Prior to this date, the vast majority of vehicles already had black boxes anyway.
Current requirements only require that black boxes record five seconds of data. However, new recommendations are being pushed that would expand this to 20 seconds of data with more frequent sampling rates and more data points.
How Do You Access the Data on a Black Box?
Even though your car likely has a black box, getting the data from the black box is not easy. It requires specialized tools and software. A common tool for reading the black box data is the Bosch crash data retrieval (CDR) tool. This type of tool can download the data directly from your car’s computer system.
Some vehicles require proprietary tools to download and read the data from the black box. In some cases, law enforcement may be able to access the data after a crash. In other instances, insurance companies may hire private investigators who have the tools and knowledge to access and read this information. It is worth noting that data can be overwritten if the vehicle is driven after a crash.
Contact a Jacksonville Car Accident Lawyer at Baggett Law Personal Injury Lawyers for a Free Consultation
If you were injured in a crash and believe black box data could help support your claim, it is important to act quickly. An experienced attorney can help preserve critical evidence, investigate the accident, and work to prove liability.
For more information, please contact the Jacksonville and Ponte Vedra car accident law firm of Baggett Law Personal Injury Lawyers at the nearest location to schedule a free consultation today.
We serve Duval County, St. Johns County, and the surrounding areas:
Baggett Law Personal Injury Lawyers – Jacksonville
9471 Baymeadows Rd #105,
Jacksonville, FL 32256
(904) 396-1100
Baggett Law Personal Injury Lawyers – Downtown Jacksonville
121 W Forsyth St Suite 1000,
Jacksonville, FL 32202
(904) 822-4225
Baggett Law Personal Injury Lawyers – Ponte Vedra
480 Town Plaza Ave #130,
Ponte Vedra Beach, FL 32081
(904) 675-1167