New York ruling adds to growing support of black-box data.

A New York trial court has ruled that information from a car's event data recorder (also known as a "black box") is reliable enough to be admissible evidence in a criminal trial. The ruling followed a Frye hearing in the case of two men charged with second-degree manslaughter after a fatal three-car crash in Old Brookville, New York.

Blake Slade and Kyle Soukup were allegedly racing on June 10, 2002, when their vehicles collided with another car, killing both its occupants. Three eyewitnesses said the cars were traveling at extremely high speeds, but in an initial interview with a detective, Slade said he had been driving "about 50 to 55 miles an hour."

Police investigators removed the black box from Soukup's Corvette and downloaded the data from it. Prosecutors want to use the data to show that the defendants were driving about 100 mph and thus caused the accident.

Nassau County Supreme Court Justice Alan Honorof held a hearing to determine whether the evidence was admissible under the "general acceptance" standard laid out in Frye v. United Slates. (293 F. 1013 (D.C. Cir. 1923).) William Haight, director of the Collision Safety Institute in San Diego, testified for the state that he has analyzed hundreds of crash tests and compared black-box data to that of external empirical instruments. He "found the event data recorders to be extremely reliable."

The judge agreed, noting that similar recorders have been used for years in airplanes, cruise and cargo ships, and trains. "The information provided by the technology underpinning event data recorders has been relied on for years by the government that regulates air bag safety, vehicle manufacturers in making safer air bag systems, and crash researchers and reconstructionists," Honorof wrote. (People v. Slade, No. 0666-03 (N.Y., Nassau County Sup. Ct. Jan. 5, 2005).)

The ruling is one of the first of its kind in New York state. The judge noted that courts in Florida, Illinois, Michigan, and Missouri have ruled similarly. Also, testimony about a car's black box was allowed in a previous New York case without a full Frye hearing.

Proponents say the technology can yield valuable information about the moments before a collision, including the vehicle's speed, whether any indicator lights were on, whether the driver's seat belt was buckled, and any changes in speed.

Plaintiff attorney Dennis Donnelly of Chatham, New Jersey, who has handled auto crash cases involving black box data, said, "If black-box evidence can meet the stricter criteria for criminal trial admissibility, with proper foundation it will almost definitely be admissible in most civil cases, particularly simple auto cases."

He cautioned, however, that "just because black-box evidence may be admissible, that does not make it infallible or remove the usual attacks on foundation or the purposes for which an expert uses such data."