[McCloud-Strife]

My thought is how did they know specifically he was doing 91? I hope this is not a “Black Box” going on here

[cripplecreek]

The black box was my first thought.

[USNBandit]

State Police Superintendent Col. Rick Fuentes said in the statement, that the findings are based on witness accounts, tire track examinations and the Crash Data Retrieval System, or black box.

Looks like it is, but I don't have any trouble with black boxes on state owned vehicles.

[CharlesWayneCT]

Yes, they said the car had a black box and they were going to look at it to get the relevant information.

All (I think) new cars have computers which remember the last 10 seconds or so before a major malfunction, in order to help diagnose problems. This means if you have an accident where the air bags go off, they will know how fast you were going.

[TheZMan]

An officer friend of mine says that from the deliniation of skid marks you can get within 1 mph of actual speed. Aside from that, if his speedometer had a needle the needle will impact surrounding material at high speeds and make an indentation or mark. Beyond that I don’t know, but there are ways.

[exit82]

Every car has a black box now. The insurance company gets to access the info as well as police in order to determine facts for accident reconstruction.

Everyone who has ever driven the Garden State Parkway can tell you that 91 mph is about the average speed for troopers in the left lane.

Everyone else is going 75.

[AlaskaErik]

My thought is how did they know specifically he was doing 91? I hope this is not a “Black Box” going on here

If you drive a newer vehicle there's a good chance it has a black box.

[Sooth2222]

"My thought is how did they know specifically he was doing 91? I hope this is not a “Black Box” going on here"

Five seconds -- yes, it was likely the "Black Box" event data recorder (actually the little gizmo is silver) that records all sorts of interesting things right before the airbags deploy and it's been in the big GM SUVs for about 10 years. Ford uses 'em, too.

I'll take a wild guess that Ford and GM were getting tired of taking all the blame when, say, someone tries to take a Ford Explorer on underinflated tires around a corner like a BMW Sauber Formula 1 car and then sues them for the result.

You can do an internet search and find which manufacturers put the little gizmos things in their cars, and which don't.

[Michael.SF.]

I hope this is not a “Black Box” going on here

Computers on cars carry far more information then we the general public are supposed to know. Such thinks as speed of the vehicle can be used by insurance companies and the police to refute conflicting statements. Guess favor or opposition may depend on which side of the specific circumstances you find yourself in:

"But officer, I was only going 62 mph, tops"

or

"Officer, that maniac was going at least 90 when he side swiped me"