WSVN — Starting next month, there is a proposal to require every new car be equipped with a black box similar to those found on airplanes. Most cars already have the black box in their car, probably even yours. And what do they do? Investigative reporter Patrick Fraser explains in this special report, “Hidden on Board.”
When you think of a black box, you probably think of the devices on airplanes, but did you know you probably own a black box?
Skip Pita, Criminal Attorney, Pita & Del Prado: “Ninety-six percent of the cars now on the road have black boxes.”
This is what the black box inside your truck or car looks like. Every vehicle with an air bag has the small device, either under the seat or under the center console. It made a big difference for Monica Larcada.
Monica Larcada: “I was running along here and all of a sudden, I saw a car on top of me.”
Monica was jogging in Downtown Miami when a woman claimed she swerved to miss another driver and smashed into the car that hit Monica. The black box proved that claim was not true.
Skip Pita: “There was never any radical steering input; she never braked. It showed that she simply drifted into the parked car. So it disproved her original contention, and that helped us win the case.”
Technically, the black boxes are called event data recorders. After a crash, they can they can reveal the speed a driver was going, whether they were hitting the brakes or accelerating, if they were wearing their seat belt and if the airbag deployed. All of that, in a five-second interval.
Miles Moss, Miles Moss & Associates, Inc.: “It can be very, very useful to tell you what’s going on at impact, and even more so, pre-impact.”
Miles Moss is a traffic engineer and can perform the difficult task of retrieving the data from the recorder.
Miles Moss: “It lets you know an awful lot more about what’s happening in an accident, which eventually makes if safer for everybody.”
Mitchell Panter, Trial Lawyer, Panter, Panter & Sampedro, P.A.: “It’s pretty hard to refute hard data.”
Mitchell Panter used the data taken from a black box in a North Miami Police car. The officer hit and killed a teenager, then claimed he was only going 30 miles per hour. The black box told a different story.
Mitchell Panter: “In this particular case, a police officer lied. Seven seconds before the accident, the police vehicle was traveling 60 miles per hour.”
The black box helped prove the case against the officer. The black box helped Monica prove the driver who hit her lied. In those cases, it provided irrefutable proof of the facts. That’s why many people love that most cars have black boxes. Many people, but not everyone.
Jeff Ivashuk: “As a criminal defense attorney, do I have concerns? Absolutely I have concerns.”
Jeff Ivashuk says, even though it’s your car, you don’t own the information on the black box. So you can’t stop the police or an insurance company or someone suing you, from getting access to its data.
Jeff Ivashuk: “Do we want the government so involved in our lives? Do you want your private personal information in the hands of a third party? It goes against my grain to have a situation where somebody comes to you and can take that information from you and prove their case against you.”
But Miles Moss, the engineer, likes the black box because it reveals the simple truth.
Miles Moss: “It makes the drivers drive a lot safer because they know somebody’s watching over them.”
Monica likes it because it proved her case against the woman who crashed into her.
Monica Larcada: “There would have been nobody, nobody to verify what happened.”
Without the black box, Mitchell Panter probably wouldn’t have been able to prove the officer who killed a 19-year-old was speeding..
Mitchell Panter: “The jury sided with us. The jury heard the information. The jury believed the black box data.”
The black box: your witness that proves your case … or proves the case against you. Patrick Fraser, 7News.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Panter, Panter & Sampedro, P.A.
Pita & Del Prado Trial Attorneys