WASHINGTON – The government should require data recorders in all passenger vehicles, federal safety officials said last week in a recommendation arising from the investigation of a car crash that killed 10 people and injured 63.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators concluded 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.
They came to that determination without testimony from the driver, George Weller, who refused on his lawyer’s advice to talk with the investigators.
The board concluded investigators could have gained a better understanding of Weller’s behavior had his 1992 Buick LeSabre been outfitted with an event data recorder, or black box.
“We believe very strongly that vehicles should have a black box,” NTSB Chairman Ellen Engleman Conners said
In the Santa Monica crash, investigators came to their decision on Weller’s actions after ruling out mechanical failure, weather, fatigue, alcohol or drugs. Weller hired a lawyer to help him fight vehicular manslaughter charges and civil lawsuits.
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 automakers are adding them voluntarily to more models.
Flight data recorders 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.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
