http://irvineworldnews.com/Astories/mar27/blackbox.html
Black box carries 'DNA' of a traffic collision ------------------------------------------------------------------------ By Laylan Connelly Irvine World News When Investigator Jonathan Cherney approached a man in Rancho Palos Verdes and asked if he had been involved in a hit-and-run accident in Irvine, the man said no. Although there were witnesses who placed the man and his car at the scene, Cherney had another way to check if he was lying. Other than the California Highway Patrol, Cherney is the only investigator in Orange County who has the tools and the know-how to access a Palm Pilot-sized black box implanted in General Motors and Ford cars that basically tells the "DNA" of a car accident. Just Wednesday, the Police Department purchased a downloading system that allows them to access data from the black boxes in Ford cars. That makes Cherney the only investigator in Orange County who can investigate collisions involving police officers on duty, because many cop cars are Ford models. The box, called a sensing and diagnostic module, or SDM, is usually hidden under the driver's or passenger's front seat, and most drivers do not even know it exists. "It's not going to explain how an accident happened," he said. "It's just one more mechanism to help show certain evidence." The device is similar to the black box used in airplanes and trains and is connected to the air bag system to show if a car had experienced an impact. Downloading onto a data retrieval system, another small box, Cherney can learn how fast a driver was going five seconds before the impact and shows whether or not the driver applied the brakes. It also shows 300 milliseconds, 3/10 of a second, after the impact so an investigator can see the drop of speed from the collision. It also shows if the driver was wearing a seat belt. For the recent hit-and-run case, it meant that Cherney could find out within minutes if the car had been in an accident, despite the suspect's attempt to hide the damage with a home paint job. "Here's a guy that says 'no, I haven't been in an accident.' His car said something else. His car told on him, basically," Cherney said. And often times drivers cannot recall how fast they were driving at impact or there may be conflicting witness statements. The SDM and the data retrieval system allows Cherney to gather objective information that can help confirm information gathered at the scene. GM and Ford installed the sensing and diagnostic module to improve safety designs and to study the causes of injuries. The SDM system has also been installed into many models since 1990, such as Buick, Saturn, and some Chevrolets. The Crash Data Retrieval System was created three years ago by Vetronix, a Santa Barbara corporation, and Ford and GM are the only automotive manufactures to allow investigators to retrieve the information. GM has allowed investigators to download since 1996 and Ford jumped aboard earlier this month, allowing downloads from cars built in 2001 and later. The information gathered by the retrieval system in the GM and Ford cars is used not only by law enforcement, but also insurance companies and independent accident investigators. "This is what I call a fair witness; you can have 10 witnesses and 10 different stories. The data that comes off this has no agenda. It's not on anybody's side," said Vetronix spokesman Jason Alexander. About 10 police departments in California have purchased the data retrieval system. Vetronix has sold the system to 1,000 customers nationwide. Although Cherney has been able to access the information in the SDM for just over a year, he has only done 13 downloads because he could only retrieve information from GM cars. He will use the system for accidents that show conflicting statements or fatal crashes that involve a more detailed investigation. Cherney said that Police Chief Michael Berkow came to him in December 2001 and asked if he would be interested in the cutting-edge technology, noting that the chief acknowledges traffic safety as one of the city's largest issues. "I felt like a draftsman and the chief was asking me if I wanted a pencil," Cherney said. Cherney attended a seminar in Riverside, where he and the instructors were the only ones in the class with the data retrieval systems. Through the training course and various trial runs, Cherney is now able determine different variables of an accident within a matter of minutes. He said it is a much faster and easier means than the traditional skid mark analysis or crush measurement equation, which calculates how fast a car was going based on the damage. The SDM is triggered by the air bag system. Anytime there is a collision that "wakes up" the sensor, even if the airbag is not deployed, the box records five seconds before the impact and 300 milliseconds after the impact. The SDM can also be triggered when the air bag bursts open. These are called deployment events and the information recorded in the box can never be erased. In January, Costa Mesa traffic investigators called Cherney in to download information from a DUI collision that left a passenger dead after the vehicle ran into a tree. Costa Mesa Police Sgt. Tim Starn was curious about the accuracy of the system and withheld previous findings that were acquired through standard procedures. When Cherney came back with the information downloaded from the crash, Starn was impressed. "It was right on the money," Starn said. Now, Starn is going to be able to present the findings in court, along with a chart that is easier for the jury to understand than the crush measure equation. Starn said that after the state budget crisis is over, his department wants to look into buying the Ford data retrieval system. Then, he said, the Costa Mesa department might be able to assist other departments, as Irvine does. Cherney said he expects all police departments to follow in Irvine's footsteps. "We're the pioneers of accident investigation technology. I think in the future it's going to be required in all cars. "We're going to look at these current black boxes as the '70s version of Pong."
