COLUMBUS (WCMH) — A safety feature in your car, that you may not have known even existed, might help protect you in the event of a crash. It can also help investigators responsible for reconstructing the scene in the aftermath of the wreck.
While the technical term may vary based on manufacturer, it’s often referred to as a car’s “black box.”
In most cars, it sits near the floor of the car, beneath the dashboard. The components inside the box are protected by rubber or foam to keep vital data safe in the event of an accident.
“When someone’s driving down the road, and their involved in a crash, this safety system decides what’s needed to protect people inside the car,” explains Staff Lt. Chris Kinn with the Ohio State Highway Patrol. “It’s a plethora of data that it’s drawing in, and then it’s making decisions in milliseconds.”
After the serious crash involving Tiger Woods last week, NBC4’s Matthew Herchik spoke to highway patrol about how the black box helps them with re-construction.
“It can answer things that we could never take do hand calculations or take measurements to figure out what happened in those moments prior to,” Staff Lt. Kinn describes.
Last year the state highway patrol requested 400 post-crash reports. The, sometimes more than 70-page, report paints a picture of the crash by identifying factors like vehicle speed, accelerator activity, or even panic braking.
“It records all of your data approximately 20 seconds before, 20 seconds during, and 20 seconds after the event of an accident,” says Addison Alig, the Master Technician at Honda Marysville.
While they don’t refer to it as a black box, Honda uses what they call a “supplemental restraint system.”
“It definitely has over the last at least 10 years developed, because before you couldn’t see a whole lot,” Alig adds.
Similar technology used to be a luxury feature. Now, the technology is just about industry wide now, providing data that will help prevent more wrecks, down the road.
“That helps us get a better picture, as far as what happened, what were the causative factors, and how do we work to reduce crashes like that happening again in the future,” Staff Lt. Kinn says.
So, when does law enforcement request these black box reports?
“The severity of the crash is definitely a determining factor. Along with is there potential prosecution, or is there unresolved issues regarding the crash,” says Staff Lt. Kinn.
Highway patrol says only about 50% of the reports they requested last year were for crashes they investigated. Half of them were for other agencies that they assist because they don’t have the resources to do it themselves.
“We are one of the agencies that have these devices that’s able to read these event data recorders deployed across the state,” says Staff Lt. Kinn. “We routinely help other agencies with imaging the data, and then interpreting that data, and then using it for their crash investigation.”
