Eye Witness Accounts are Built into Modern Vehicles
“The light was green!”
One driver insists they had the right of way with a green light. The other swears up and down that the light was not green. Both of them are thoroughly convinced their version is the correct version. And for years, crashes often involved conflicting stories, with the details being pieced together with whatever physical evidence investigators could piece together from skid marks and vehicle damage.
Today, though, there’s a witness to just about every car wreck in Texas. It’s one that never blinks, never forgets, and really doesn’t care who is right or wrong. It’s sitting in your garage, at the auto body shop, or in the salvage yard after a wreck.
The Car Crash Captain explores the world of connected vehicles, what data is collected, and how it can be the most important witness to your vehicle wreck.
Your Car May Remember What You Don’t
Modern vehicles are computers on wheels. They don’t record every second of your life, but they can preserve valuable information that’s going to be key when investigators are trying to understand what happened immediately before the wreck.
We know about the “black box.” It’s something that airplanes have had for decades, and since 2014 essentially every new vehicle has one of them installed. Technically, it’s called the Event Data Recorder (EDR), and it stores information locally. But some of the newer vehicles are even more connected to a server. These can send notifications of crashes, GPS data, and more.
Depending on your vehicle, that connection and EDR can record:
- Vehicle speed
- Braking
- Acceleration
- Seatbelt use
- Steering details
- Airbag deployment
- Lane departure
- Automatic braking
- GPS
And a whole lot more. Some modern vehicles are constantly collecting data on your driving habits. That can be a good thing, because people forget; electronics acting as an important witness, don’t.
Your Vehicle Proves You Were Telling the Truth
Both drivers insist they had a green light and that the other one was at fault. Years ago, that would have been impossible to prove. Today, investigators can find several sources of evidence.
It’s possible to pull the black box and look at the connected data, but there’s also:
- Traffic signal timing records
- Surveillance cameras
- Dashcams
- Phone records
Sometimes, none of these alone will tell the full story. But together they can paint a remarkably detailed picture.
The traffic signal records might show the exact second the light changed. The vehicle’s data may show when the impact occurred. Video can show when the vehicle entered the intersection. Piecing them all together can lead to the conclusion that someone’s light was red for several seconds before the impact.
Not every intersection maintains this information as your most important witness, and not all vehicles store the same data. But the way technology and cars are trending, this is becoming a more and more likely scenario.
The Insurance Company May Already be Looking
The problem for the victim, however, is that insurance companies are gathering this data already. And if you don’t act quickly enough, the evidence can disappear. Vehicles get repaired and computers are wiped. Modules are overwritten and security camera footage is deleted. After a while, it’s as if the wreck never happened – at least when it comes to the digital record.
If you aren’t preserving evidence that supports your side of the story, the insurance company might be preserving evidence that supports their side of the story.
That’s why you need a heavy hitting Texas car wreck lawyer on your side.
Herbert Law Group Backs Up Your Side of the Story
From our offices in Richardson, Texas, we’re here to help prove that you’re the victim. What we need first is to get to know you. And that happens with a free phone call. Just call our offices at 214-414-3808, or fill out the contact form on our site, and we’ll be in touch for your free consultation.