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NHTSA 

 

Proposed Requirements For Voluntarily Installed Event Data Recorders

 

(The "Black Boxes" of the Automobile World)

 

 

June 10, 2004

 

 

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration today proposed standard requirements for Event Data Recorders (EDRs) that manufacturers choose to  install in light vehicles. But the proposed rule would not require the actual installation of  EDRs.

“EDRs are [already fitted] in most new vehicles and are already providing valuable safety  information for our crash investigators and researchers,” said NHTSA Administrator  Jeffrey W. Runge, M.D. “We hope that eventually this crash information will be  available in real time to emergency medical systems and physicians to improve  trauma care after a crash.”

 

The NHTSA is proposing, beginning in September 2008, to: 

  1. require that the  EDRs voluntarily installed in light vehicles record a minimum set of specified data  elements useful for crash investigations; 

  2. specify requirements for that data;  

  3. increase the survivability of the EDRs and their data by requiring that they  function during and after  front, side and rear crash tests; 

  4. require vehicle  manufacturers to make publicly available information that would enable crash  investigators to retrieve data from the EDR; and 

  5. require vehicle manufacturers  to include a brief, standardized statement in the owner’s manual indicating that  the vehicle is equipped with an EDR and describing the purposes of EDRs.

An EDR is an electronic device that detects a crash and records certain  information for several seconds of time before, during and after a crash.  For  instance, an EDR may record pre-crash data, such as impact speed, forces on the  vehicle during the crash, safety belt use and air bag performance and allow  activation of an automatic collision notification to emergency medical personnel.

 

NHTSA first began EDR studies after a 1997 recommendation from the National  Transportation Safety Board.  The agency’s studies of the EDR records of more than  2000 crashes led to today’s proposal.

 

Out of the approximately 200 million light vehicles in the US, NHTSA  estimates that 15 percent of the vehicle fleet (30 million cars, pickups, vans,  sport utility vehicles and multi-purpose vehicles) are equipped with EDRs that can  be easily read, and that between 65 and 90 percent of new light vehicle models will  be equipped with EDRs.

 

NHTSA will accept comments on this notice of proposed rulemaking for the next  60 days.  Written comments concerning it should be sent to the DOT Docket Facility,  Attn: Docket No. NHTSA 2004-18029, Room PL-401, 400 Seventh St., S.W., Washington,  D.C., 20590-0001, or faxed to (202) 493-2251. The notice also will be available for  viewing at http://dms.dot.gov/

 

Source: U.S. Department of Transportation, Office of Public Affairs -- NHTSA 27-04