Andy C
03-31-2005, 01:31 PM
I read this article in the Florida Sun Sentinel this morning.
I seem to remember a thread about the legallity of using the air bag black box sensors being used as evidence in court - it appears that this is the first case of its kind (according to the article) where a driver has been prosecuted using the crash data from a vehicle.
"The little "black box" in Edwin Matos' car is a reliable source of evidence that he was driving at more than three times the speed limit when he slammed into another vehicle and killed two teenage girls in Pembroke Pines, an appeals court ruled on Wednesday.
In what appears to be the nation's first such appellate ruling in a criminal case, the 4th District Court of Appeal agreed with the trial judge who allowed Broward prosecutors to use evidence gathered from the car's "black box" in Matos' 2003 trial.
"This is a tool we're going to be using more and more often in traffic investigations," said Michael Horowitz, the prosecutor who won two manslaughter convictions against Matos. "It's an objective piece of evidence that can convict or exonerate you."
Few drivers realize that a silent, technological passenger is riding along with them and could be used as evidence against them.
Every vehicle that has an airbag has a version of the box, which is also known as an "event data recorder." Experts describe it as the brain of the airbag system because it records speed and collects other data about how the car is operating and tells the airbags whether or not to deploy in the event of an accident.
While most cars on the road today have the device, Horowitz said that, right now, data can only be usefully retrieved and interpreted from a few makes, including Ford, General Motors and some Isuzu models. He said he expects the technology will be more widely available in the future and will be used in more cases.
Carmakers have been successfully using data from the boxes for years, the court found, and the reliability of the information is generally accepted among experts who work in that field. That is the legal standard for expert proof to be used in court.
Matos' attorney, Jack Fleischman, said that he plans to further appeal the ruling. Matos, 48, is currently serving 30 years in prison for the August 2002 deaths of Jamie Maier, 16, of Davie, and Paige Kupperman, 17, who had recently moved to Miami Lakes from Cooper City. They were backing out of a friend's driveway when Matos' 2002 Pontiac Grand Am Firehawk slammed into them.
In this case, the computer data showed that Matos was driving at 114 mph just four seconds before the crash and at 103 mph in the second before the crash. The posted speed limit was 30 mph in the residential neighborhood. Accident reconstructionists had estimated the minimum crash speed at 80 mph.
The conviction rested largely on the evidence from the "black box," Horowitz said shortly after the verdict.
Police and court records showed that Matos was also intoxicated at the time of the crash and that he had a blood alcohol level of .12 percent. The legal limit to operate a vehicle or vessel is .08 percent.
But the jury was not told about those test results because they were not legally admissible at trial. The judge ruled that the evidence could not be used in court because Matos did not give consent for his blood to be taken.
The appellate court also ruled that the device is not subject to a Florida law requiring radar guns and other speed detectors to be regularly tested."
I seem to remember a thread about the legallity of using the air bag black box sensors being used as evidence in court - it appears that this is the first case of its kind (according to the article) where a driver has been prosecuted using the crash data from a vehicle.
"The little "black box" in Edwin Matos' car is a reliable source of evidence that he was driving at more than three times the speed limit when he slammed into another vehicle and killed two teenage girls in Pembroke Pines, an appeals court ruled on Wednesday.
In what appears to be the nation's first such appellate ruling in a criminal case, the 4th District Court of Appeal agreed with the trial judge who allowed Broward prosecutors to use evidence gathered from the car's "black box" in Matos' 2003 trial.
"This is a tool we're going to be using more and more often in traffic investigations," said Michael Horowitz, the prosecutor who won two manslaughter convictions against Matos. "It's an objective piece of evidence that can convict or exonerate you."
Few drivers realize that a silent, technological passenger is riding along with them and could be used as evidence against them.
Every vehicle that has an airbag has a version of the box, which is also known as an "event data recorder." Experts describe it as the brain of the airbag system because it records speed and collects other data about how the car is operating and tells the airbags whether or not to deploy in the event of an accident.
While most cars on the road today have the device, Horowitz said that, right now, data can only be usefully retrieved and interpreted from a few makes, including Ford, General Motors and some Isuzu models. He said he expects the technology will be more widely available in the future and will be used in more cases.
Carmakers have been successfully using data from the boxes for years, the court found, and the reliability of the information is generally accepted among experts who work in that field. That is the legal standard for expert proof to be used in court.
Matos' attorney, Jack Fleischman, said that he plans to further appeal the ruling. Matos, 48, is currently serving 30 years in prison for the August 2002 deaths of Jamie Maier, 16, of Davie, and Paige Kupperman, 17, who had recently moved to Miami Lakes from Cooper City. They were backing out of a friend's driveway when Matos' 2002 Pontiac Grand Am Firehawk slammed into them.
In this case, the computer data showed that Matos was driving at 114 mph just four seconds before the crash and at 103 mph in the second before the crash. The posted speed limit was 30 mph in the residential neighborhood. Accident reconstructionists had estimated the minimum crash speed at 80 mph.
The conviction rested largely on the evidence from the "black box," Horowitz said shortly after the verdict.
Police and court records showed that Matos was also intoxicated at the time of the crash and that he had a blood alcohol level of .12 percent. The legal limit to operate a vehicle or vessel is .08 percent.
But the jury was not told about those test results because they were not legally admissible at trial. The judge ruled that the evidence could not be used in court because Matos did not give consent for his blood to be taken.
The appellate court also ruled that the device is not subject to a Florida law requiring radar guns and other speed detectors to be regularly tested."