State legislation may regulate 'black boxes' in cars

06:33 PM CST on Monday, March 28, 2005

By Nancy Holland / 11 News

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They're called black boxes and they record data that may help in the investigation of an accident, but they're not the ones on airplanes. They're the ones that may be in the car you're driving and some states are now moving to regulate them.

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There are concerns about who gets the information and how much the technology could expand.

Consumed with color and sound systems, buyers may not know they are also getting a black box. They are.

Less sophisticated than a flight recorder, they are part of the airbag system and in an accident can add to what investigators learn by other means.

"In a major traffic investigation there's accident reconstruction," explained Major Robert Van Pelt, Harris County Sheriff's Department. They're going to measure skid marks, look at damage on the vehicles and so forth."

Some lawyers like speed, RPM's, and braking data.

"You've got eyewitnesses, but you've also got a truth meter that can say, 'Yes, the fella fell asleep because he never reacted and hit his brakes.' Or 'No, the fella was wide-awake cause he hit his brakes. He just wasn't able to slow down from 120 to 30 when he was in a 30-mile zone'," said Mark Lanier, Lanier Law Firm.

There are concerns about who gets the information and how much the technology could expand. One suggestion in Europe reportedly would allow more sophisticated devices to record location and speed, something some legislators are already moving to stop.

More than half a dozen states are now looking at legislation that would somehow regulate how the information from the black boxes is used. A California law already says buyers have to be told if their vehicle has one.

By some estimates about 30 million vehicles have boxes and more new models are getting them. There are ways to avoid them, but it's not a choice most drivers would make.