After a serious car crash, the people involved may have very different accounts of what happened. One driver may insist they were traveling at the speed limit, while another says they were speeding. A driver may claim they braked before impact even though the physical evidence suggests otherwise. In some cases, no independent witness saw the collision clearly enough to resolve the dispute.
Modern vehicles may contain another source of information that can help investigators piece together those critical seconds: an event data recorder, commonly called an EDR.
For people injured in South Carolina car crashes, EDR information can provide objective technical evidence about a vehicle’s operation immediately before and during a collision. However, obtaining and properly interpreting that information can require quick action and a careful investigation.
What Does a Vehicle Event Data Recorder Record?
An EDR is sometimes described as a vehicle’s “black box.” However, it is not identical to the recorders used in airplanes. In contrast, those continuously record everything that happens inside; an EDR stores only specific technical information related to a crash event.
Depending on the vehicle and its equipment, that information may include:
- Vehicle speed before the collision.
- Whether the accelerator was being used.
- Whether the driver applied the brakes.
- Changes in the vehicle’s velocity during impact.
- Seat belt status.
- Airbag deployment information.
- Engine speed.
- Steering input.
- Antilock braking or stability-control activity.
Federal regulations establish requirements for the information recorded by vehicles equipped with EDRs, although the precise data available can depend on the vehicle and system involved.
That means an EDR does not provide a video of the crash or automatically identify who was responsible. Instead, it can provide another set of facts that may help explain how the collision occurred.
When EDR Evidence Can Become Especially Important
EDR information may be particularly useful when the drivers disagree about events immediately before impact.
Consider a collision in which one driver says the other vehicle entered an intersection at excessive speed. Vehicle damage can provide important clues, and witnesses or surveillance footage may also help. EDR data could show how fast the vehicle was traveling shortly before impact and whether its driver attempted to brake.
The same type of evidence may be useful in disputes involving allegations that a driver accelerated rather than slowed down, failed to react to stopped traffic, or made a sudden maneuver before a collision.
South Carolina Highway Patrol’s Multi-Disciplinary Accident Investigation Team even identifies EDR information as one of the materials that may be available from certain MAIT crash investigations.
The Data Must Be Considered Alongside the Rest of the Evidence
EDR evidence can be powerful, but it should not be treated as the sole basis for a crash investigation.
A complete analysis may also involve photographs, vehicle damage, roadway markings, witness statements, surveillance or dashcam footage, scene measurements, police documentation, and other physical evidence. Crash reconstruction professionals may compare those sources with the electronic vehicle data to determine whether they support the same sequence of events.
EDR information also has limitations. The available data varies by vehicle, and not every recorded event provides every possible data point. NHTSA has noted that EDR information should be evaluated alongside other evidence when reconstructing a crash.
This becomes especially important when an insurance company tries to take one piece of electronic information out of context.
Why Preserving Electronic Vehicle Evidence Matters
A damaged vehicle may look like nothing more than property awaiting repair, sale, or disposal. From an evidentiary standpoint, however, the vehicle itself may contain information that helps establish what happened.
Federal rules recognize that some non-deployment EDR events may potentially be overwritten depending on the circumstances and the particular system. A vehicle may also change hands, be repaired, or eventually be destroyed after a severe crash.
For that reason, identifying potentially important vehicle evidence can be an early part of investigating a serious injury claim. You may need to take steps to preserve the vehicle and arrange for qualified professionals to retrieve and interpret available EDR information before the opportunity is lost.
Building a Clearer Picture of a South Carolina Car Crash
When liability is disputed, the outcome should not depend solely on which driver tells the more convincing story. Electronic vehicle information may help establish facts that memory, assumptions, and conflicting statements cannot.
At David W. Martin Accident & Injury Lawyers, our South Carolina personal injury attorneys investigate the evidence surrounding serious car crashes to determine how they occurred and who may be responsible. If you were injured in a collision and questions remain about what happened, contact us today at (803) 258-6199 to discuss your case and any available evidence.
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