Big Brother Is Not Watching

Please excuse my recent absence.  I’d love to report that my silence was due to a prolonged stay on a tropical island with no internet access.  Unfortunately, that’s not anywhere near the truth.  In fact I’ve been in Canada ….. so look out for hockey analogies in the coming weeks.  Anyway, let’s not dwell on the frozen north, lets talk about …….. your car.

An EDR, or Event Data Recorder, is a computer chip which sits in the driver’s airbag housing in an automobile.  The chances are that if you have a newer car or truck you have an EDR onboard.  So, what is an EDR?  Well first off, what it is not is a GPS system.  It is not an electronic “Big Brother” that tracks where you go, when you go and how fast to go.  In fact most of the time an EDR does nothing.  It just sits there.  However, if you brake hard, swerve, hit a speed bump or accelerate rapidly your EDR will wake up and start recording all kinds of interesting information.

Currently more than two thirds of all new cars, SUVs and light trucks are equipped with an EDR.  By 2010 this figure is estimated to be as high as 85%.  So it is increasingly likely that if you are involved in a car accident that at least one of the vehicles involved will have an EDR.  So what?  Well let’s go back to the triggering event that causes the EDR to “wake up”.  Events like hard breaking, swerving, or violent acceleration are often followed by a car crash.  So when such a triggering event wakes the EDR it starts collecting data that can be used in the analysis of a claim event.  Among other things, the EDR will record acceleration/deceleration, vehicle speed, engine throttle and braking, engine RPM count and seatbelt usage.  This information can also be recorded twice for two separate events (think of a multi-vehicle event where your car is rear-ended and then is propelled into the car in front of you).  With this information in hand a qualified analyst can build an accurate picture of the collision which can determine the nature and at-fault characteristics of a collision and also the extent to which various types of soft tissue injury are consistent with the accident characteristics.

In fact courts have consistently found EDR data to be scientifically reliable and relevant and to meet admissibility criteria.  In other words an EDR is a trusted witness to the collision event.  The data collected can establish or identify the at-fault nature, severity and injury causation or relatedness of a crash; questionable or fraudulent soft tissue injuries; collision sequence in a multi-vehicle accident; staged collisions and validation of “phantom collisions” and whether the collision occurred during the policy period and is therefore a covered loss.

Given the huge potential of EDR data to reduce litigation and fraud some predictions are obvious: the plaintiff’s lawyers will (and indeed have all ready started to) try to scare and confuse state legislators and regulators into banning EDR data from the courtroom and into convincing the public that EDRs are a threat to our privacy; availability and admissibility of EDR data will vary from state to state; and, despite the issues raised here, EDR data will become a key part of every auto accident claim file over the next few years.  EDR technology is about to radically change the multi-billion dollar business of automobile insurance claims handling. 

Comments

[Bill Garvey]

So these EDR's are like the black boxes they always find after a plane crash. If I were a plaintiff attorney I'd encourage their use. When such a devise was introduced intact at trial, I would sue the vehicle's manufacturer for making a car that protected an inanimate object, but not my poor client who sits in court damaged for life.