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EDR "Black Box" Analysis

Passenger Vehicles

Over the years, Quest Engineering has downloaded (“imaged”) hundreds of passenger cars, trucks and SUV’s,  acquiring priceless incident data for our clients from the vehicle’s EDR (Event Data Recorder).  Depending on the type/year of the vehicle, certain critical accident information may be available, including, but not limited to: Seatbelt Use, Delta-V (impact severity), Vehicle Speed, Brake Status (On/Off), Throttle Status (percentage), Engine Speed (RPM).  Some information is available up to 8 seconds prior to impact, depending on the vehicle.

The following list represents vehicles that can potentially have “black box” data, going all the way back to 1994 on some vehicles.

Commercial Vehicles

The data available on commercial vehicles depends on the type of engine, as opposed to the make/model of the truck itself.  The most common commercial motor vehicle engines that can potentially have “black box” data include:

The data varies from manufacture to manufacture, but most commercial vehicles have a combination of the following data, including, but not limited to: Vehicle Speed, Brake Status (On/Off), Throttle Status (percentage), Engine Speed (RPM), Cruise Control Status, Maximum Speed, Governed Speed, Engine Fault Codes.

Some of the common types of commercial vehicles we have acquired incident data from include the following: Tractor-Trailers, Garbage Trucks, Dump Trucks, Cement Trucks, Tow Trucks, Motor-Homes/RV’s, School Buses, etc.

GPS/Tracking Systems

With today’s technology, it is not uncommon to collect data from an aftermarket tracking system in addition to the data collected from the “black box” imaging.  In cases where there is no data collected by the EDR (Event Data Recorder), these aftermarket systems, if equipped, can sometimes provide valuable pre/post-accident information. There are many different types of tracking systems and the information obtained from each varies greatly.  During our inspection, we will notify you if such a system exists and if data is available to acquire.