Posted on 10/09/2005 5:04:56 PM PDT by Ben Mugged
In what is becoming a familiar scene in courtrooms nationwide, information collected from a car’s “black box” was used to convict a motorist of criminal charges.
On June 30, a Peabody, Mass., District Court jury found Michelle Zimmerman guilty of misdemeanor motor vehicle homicide in the death of her front seat passenger, Kenneth Carlson. The jury concluded Zimmerman was driving negligently when she skidded out of control and struck a tree on Jan. 4, 2003. Information collected from the event data recorder (EDR), or black box, in her GMC Yukon reported that Zimmerman was driving 58 mph in a 40 mph zone—on an icy road, according to Essex Assistant District Attorney William J. Melkonian. EDR data also showed that Zimmerman never applied the brakes.
Judge Santo Ruma sentenced Zimmerman to two years in prison, one year to be served with the balance suspended for three years of probation. The conviction carries a statutory 10-year loss of license.
Defense lawyer Robert Weiner has vowed to appeal based on his claims that the EDR data was misinterpreted and that police illegally obtained the data. The case could set a legal precedent in Massachusetts and nationwide where EDR information already has been introduced in more than two-dozen cases.
(Excerpt) Read more at abrn.com ...
Reverse engineering the software in auto computers is difficult but doable. There are several companies doing that today in order to allow users to reprogram timing and engine control parameters. Eliminating the recording function would be possible. However, I would suspect it would be both expensive (reprogrammers cost as much as a new computer 4-600 dollars) and possibly illegal. Tampering with or disconnecting safety systems in a car carries a hefty fine and in some cases jail time.
Wrong.
My neighbor has a beautiful '57 Chevy. It has no black box. There are probably more cars on the road without those boxes than there are cars with them. If you want to cover up your reckless drving, buy a 60's muscle car. You will not have a black box and you will have a really cool car.
OK, not "all" - but any post 1995 OBDII car has it.
Good point. Being watched is not a deterrent unless you know you are being watched.
The highway patrol cop can not see every illegal driving act. Does this make the use of cops on patrol seem discriminatory.
Many people would buy a replacement non-tattle CPU if it were available. It would be like wiping Windows from your PC and installing Linux.
Then that person should not be driving.
I'll bet a scan of this thread could produce a reliable list of Freepers who are motor vehicle scofflaws and a list of those that are safe drivers.
It is ironic. People who worry about self incrimination usually are incriminating themselves.
"bad" is a subjective term. obviously older drivers have worse reaction time then younger ones. you want to subject people to a digital performance review based on their car's computer, and jail the ones who don't "qualify" should they be involved in an accident involving injury?
Bad judgment that results in injury, death or property damage is charged as "Criminal Negligence."
Anybody who comes hanging around here saying stuff like "maybe it depends on whether you have something to hide or not" needs to start doing a LOT of Constitutional reading.
In the instance of a witness who just walked into the room, a good defense attorney can get an acquittal if the smoking gun turns out to have not been fired by you.
But people have a tendency to attribute capabilities to a machine humans do not posess, and although the data may be as stated (the wheels were turning at a rate indicating 58 mph, the engine RPM were conformably high, the brakes were not applied, etc.), the data must be correctly interpreted in order to reach the correct attribution of fault or error.
Not only is 5 seconds of data possibly quite insuficient, the scope of that data is insufficient.
The box is not recording everything going on out there, it may record the data input flawlessly, but it will neither record nor process the full spectrum of data that the human operator does.
How many years has it taken some of the best minds in the country to come up with a vehicle which could pass the DARPA Challenge at a rate the average farm kid could muster on a slow day?
Somewhere between black box and jury you must find people and attorneys who are both knowledgeable enough about what their automobile does as they are driving it, (or who can be educated to be on the spot), and who can interpret the data within the framework of the circumstances involved.
If there has been another vehicle overtaking in the rearview mirror, sliding down the hill behind the vehicle, evasive maneuvers called for would have included speed, not attempting to slow down.
For this reason, we humans, with all our failings, continue to operate vehicles, to land the plane, etc. We have not built machines capable of a sufficient spectrum of data input, nor of interpreting that data well enough.
With that in mind, if automobile "accidents" were investigated to the standards the aviation industry has set, "operator error" would be high on the list of causative factors, just as pilot error is with aircraft crashes.
Seldom in states which provide for citations for not using "care required" to avoid an accident does the driver get a pass. I knocked over a very old street sign one fine winter evening, moving at approximately 10 mph, on clear ice which the sand had melted through and the ice frozen over.
My speedometer barely registered motion as I attempted to turn my vehicle and the front wheels lost traction. The impact did not dent the front of my old van which is all metal. The investigating officer pulled up at a low rate of speed, (slid to a stop), got out of his vehicle, and promptly slipped and fell on his a$$.
The street appeared to have been recently sanded, but ice had formed over the sand, which had melted into the surface earlier in the day.
Despite the obvious facts, I was written up anyway. Oh well, you broke it, you bought it.
Would the 'box' have gotten me out of the ticket? No, because the accident was prima facie evidence that I was going too fast for the (deceptive) conditions.
That's "Constitutionalist" to you, pal.
Somehow I just can't see the Founding Fathers signing off on something like this...
As we learned during the Clinton era, rules (and LOTS of them) are for the little people.
And the Republicans, as I'm sure we'll be learning shortly as the MSM goes apesh*t over the rumored coming "indictments".
The truth shall set you free.......if you are innocent.
Over the years here at FR, I've seen this variation on the same theme over and over again: "You've got nothing to hide if you're innocent".
Fortunately, the Founders were familiar with the REST of the story. This kind of naive thinking only works if your Government is perfect. It was common agreement among the Founders that there was no such thing as a perfect Government. Therefore, you can't use slogans like "the truth shall set you free.......if you are innocent", because the chances are that you might be wrong in that assumption.
My condolences on your state of residence. ;-)
"Oh dear. You really do have an over active imagination. Either that or you, yourself, have visited illegal bordellos and cheated on your taxes. Where else would you get these fantasies from?"
But on the off chance you MIGHT do these things (since you seem to get your panties in a bunch at the slightest hint of wrongdoing) I think you need the ankle bracelet. After all, as you stated, when people are watched, they are deterred from crime. That's no fantasy, that is your quote.
Well, if you insist -- </scarcasm>
If you think I need an ankle bracelet how can you object to auto black boxes?
Data are always subject to interpretation. Our society relies on juries for the ultimate determination. It may not be the best system, but it is the best we can do right now.
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