- WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S.
government should require data recorders in all passenger vehicles, federal
safety officials said in a recommendation arising from the investigation
of a car crash that killed 10 people and injured 63.
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- National Transportation Safety Board investigators concluded
that the 86-year-old driver had stepped on the gas instead of the brake
and plowed into a farmers market in Santa Monica, Calif., on July 16, 2003.
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- They came to that determination without testimony from
the driver, George Weller, who refused on his lawyer's advice to talk with
the investigators.
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- The board concluded that investigators could have gained
a better scientific understanding of Mr. Weller's behaviour had his car
been outfitted with an event data recorder, known usually as a "black
box."
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- "We believe very strongly that vehicles should have
a black box," NTSB chairman Ellen Engleman Conners said Tuesday.
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- In the Santa Monica crash, investigators came to their
decision on Mr. Weller's actions after ruling out mechanical failure, weather,
fatigue, alcohol or drugs. Mr. Weller hired a lawyer to help him fight
vehicular manslaughter charges and civil lawsuits.
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- The NTSB recommended black boxes two months after the
top federal auto safety agency, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,
said it saw no need to require them because auto makers are adding them
voluntarily to more models.
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- Flight data recorders, which despite the black box characterization
are bright orange, are aboard all commercial aircraft. They can collect
more than a thousand pieces of data about an airliner that investigators
can review to determine the cause of a crash.
-
- Proponents of black boxes in passenger vehicles say they
could provide investigators with an exhaustive database that could highlight
flaws in auto and road designs.
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- Critics worry about who would get access to that information.
Privacy advocate David Sobel said millions of drivers on the road now have
no idea that their vehicles are collecting data.
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- "They certainly don't know what's being collected,
how long it's being retained and who can get access to it under what circumstances,"
said Mr. Sobel, general counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information
Center.
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- AAA, the nation's largest auto club, would support requiring
black boxes only if protections were in place to ensure the data are used
just for safety research and cannot be traced to specific drivers, spokesman
Mantill Williams said.
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- The highway safety agency says between 65 per cent and
90 per cent of 2004 vehicles have some sort of recording ability. About
15 per cent of vehicles have data recorders. Different models collect different
amounts of data. Some record nothing more than how quickly a vehicle sped
up or slowed down, while others collect a range of information about the
driver's actions and the condition of a vehicle's mechanical systems.
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- Data have been used by the highway safety agency in safety
research and by law-enforcement officials investigating car crashes.
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- In Massachusetts, crash data have been used to bolster
evidence in several prosecutions. In California, a law took effect on July
1 that requires manufacturers to tell buyers when their new cars have black
boxes. In most cases, the law requires an owner's permission before authorities
can get access to the data.
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- The NTSB has the power only to investigate and recommend.
Any requirements would have to be imposed by NHTSA.
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- The highway safety agency said in June that requiring
black boxes was unnecessary, but it proposed that by 2008 the auto industry
should outfit their vehicles voluntarily with recorders that would collect
42 pieces of accident data, including speed, braking, seat-belt use and
the time required for air bags to deploy.
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- The NTSB said black boxes could help explain accidents
caused by "unintended acceleration" in which a vehicle suddenly
speeds up. This can be caused by a driver's sitting in the wrong position
or mistakenly stepping on the accelerator rather than the brake, as the
NTSB contends the Santa Monica driver did.
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- Those who believe older drivers should have to prove
their driving ability cited the accident as an example of the tragedy that
can result when people are too old to drive safely. The safety board could
not determine whether Mr. Weller's age played a role in the accident, focusing
instead on the need for stronger barriers at regularly recurring outdoor
events such as street fairs and farmers markets.
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- Ms. Engleman Conners said the safety board maintains
its interest in the issue of older drivers. The board decided to send an
investigation team to Santa Monica because it hoped to learn whether the
driver's age contributed to the accident.
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