A few months ago there was a terrible accident here in Georgia. A young lady ran into a family on a highway and killed everyone in the car, including a baby. It was a grizzly accident. The story was (and still is) in the news with most wondering just what happened. Did the driver get sick behind the wheel? Was she distracted by a phone? Was she going too fast and lost control of her car?
If her BMW was equipped with a "black box", we'll definitely find out what happened. No longer just for planes, many of today's cars come equipped with "black boxes", unbeknown to many drivers. Like airplanes, they provide a host of detailed information about what goes on inside of a car, more than the information already gathered in today's cars. Known as an event data recorder (EDR), if your car has one of these you might as well come clean if you're the cause of an accident because this black box will contain the best information used against you. By providing information about your braking time, seat belt status, speed, and turn signaling, the results of the EDR can send you home or could send you to a new home, bars complimentary. In addition, there's a good chance that your insurance company knows about this device, so should you.
Anyone driving a new GM, Ford, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Isuzu,or Subaru has one. If I understand correctly, about half of the new Toyotas are also equipped with them. Don't have one? Don't fret, by 2011 the feds will make them mandatory in the United States.
When I was growing up, human eye-witnesses, if there were any, were critical in finding out what happened when an accident occurred. While they continue to play an important role, it appears that today's electronic eye-witness might outperform its human counterpart.
