US Senate Passes Bill 1813 Mandating Event Data Recorders (EDRs) in Passenger Vehicles by 2015

Benjamin Smith
Principal Technical Analyst
MSC MS

Earlier this month, in the 2nd Session of the 112th congress, the United States Senate passed Bill 1813, which mandates the presence of event data recorders (EDRs) in all vehicles sold in the US by 2015. Additionally, the US House of Representatives is considering similar legislation.

Section 31406, titled “Vehicle Event Data Recorders,” indicates that Part 563 of Title 49, Code of Federal Regulations, will be revised with new regulations centered on the implementation, capabilities, ownership, and accessibility of EDRs in passenger vehicles available in the United States.

Furthermore, Part D (revisions) of Section 31406 requires that EDRs record data for a “reasonable” amount time before, during, and after an airbag deployment or rollover and that these data be accessible by means of “commercially available equipment” in a “specified data format.”

Read the document (pdf) regarding Senate Bill 1813 released by the Government Printing Office (GPO).

Messerschmidt and Austin to Present at the 2012 ARC-CSI Crash Conference

Kelly Messerschmidt
Technical Communications Manager
MSC

Bill Messerschmidt of MSC, and Tim Austin of the Wisconsin State Patrol Academy will give a presentation on “Using ECM Diagnostic Data in Crash Reconstruction” at the 2012 ARC-CSI Crash Conference, which will take place June 4-7, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Messerschmidt and Austin’s presentation explores the presence of important, volatile fault data in heavy vehicle Engine Control Modules (ECMs) that are oftentimes ignored, inadvertently erased, or overwritten during the ECM data imaging process.

They will discuss how and when diagnostic records are written, how they can be useful in collision investigations, as well as how the data can be preserved correctly. Messerschmidt and Austin will describe data imaging methods, such as the use of surrogate vehicles and devices like the “Truck in a Box.”

The ARC-CSI Crash Conference takes place annually and—as they have done for the past 10 years—the ARC-CSI Crash Team will conduct multiple, fully instrumented live crash tests of vehicles in real world crash scenarios. Learn more about the crash tests.

The two days that follow crash test day are comprised of technical presentations given by experts from around the world on topics relevant to investigating and reconstructing vehicle collisions. Learn more about the topics and speakers for the 2012 ARC-CSI Crash Conference.

Register to attend this year’s conference.

SAE EDR Symposium: Day 2, Session 2

Bill Messerschmidt
Manager
Messerschmidt Safety Consultants

The second session today is "Commercial Vehicle Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) (and Supplier) Perspectives," with speakers from Daimler Trucks, Volvo Trucks, Navistar, and Meritor Wabco.

The first speaker is Paul Menig from Daimler Trucks North America. Mr. Menig is discussing Safety from Start to Finish. He points out that a heavy vehicle has approximately 10 computers (engine, transmission, ABS, and so on). He points out that the general trend in the trucking industry has been for new technology to begin as an aftermarket option and then move toward greater integration (prep package, pre-delivery) until it becomes an OE factory option.

The next speaker is Timothy LaFon from Volvo Trucks North America. Mack and Volvo are headquartered in Greensboro, NC. The major control units on these vehicles are ABS, Airbags, Electronic Stability Control (ESC), EECU and VECU (Engine and Vehicle Electronic Control Units, respectively). There is also a light control module. He points out that ECUs were not developed for accident or crash investigations, and that physical data need to be considered as well as electronic data.

Beginning in 2002, Volvo does have "freeze frame" data associated with fault codes. Mr. LaFon announced that Volvo DOES HAVE INCIDENT LOGGING. The Volvo EDR, which begins in 2010, has two events: one associated with a Last Stop and one associated with a wheel speed trigger of 10mph/sec. There is one fault associated with VECU faults and one with EECU faults. These have 60 seconds of pre-event and 30 seconds of post-event data at 4Hz.

Airbag control units can be downloaded but need to be sent back to Europe. ABS and ESC systems should be downloaded by the supplier (e.g., Bendix or Wabco).

THIS IS THE FIRST OFFICIAL, PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT FROM VOLVO THAT THEIR TRUCKS HAVE AN EDR.

As of now, Mr. LaFon states that all Volvo VECU/EECU downloads must be handled by Tim Cheek (Delta-V Forensic Engineers) or John Steiner (KEVA Engineering). Mr. LaFon states that the reason for this is that they (Volvo) have concerns about data accuracy, evidence spoliation, and that Volvo has no method for selling the EDR Retrieval Tools to the public.

I think it's worth pointing out here that the engineering, research, and crash investigation community have successfully dealt with these very same issues with the other engine manufacturers' EDRs, including self-funding dozens and dozens of research papers over (literally) decades in light vehicle and heavy vehicle EDRs. Ironically, most of that research has been published though SAE.

The third speaker is Alan Korn from Meritor Wabco. Mr. Korn is describing the data monitoring system that Meritor Wabco offers called Safety Direct. This system can monitor and record driver behavior and alert a safety manager of aggressive driving. Safety Direct monitors and records events (10 seconds before and after), and can include video. It can be downloaded directly from the vehicle or it can be uploaded by a telematics system.

The final presentation in this group is from Eric Swenson of Navistar. Mr. Swenson is discussing the electrical, mechanical, space, and power requirements for a J2728-compliant HVEDR.

Visit SAE's page to learn more about the speakers. View the Event Guide for the SAE 2011 Highway Vehicle EDR Symposium (pdf).

Senators Pryor (D-AR) and Alexander (R-TN) Introduce New Electronic On-board Recorder (EOBR) Legislation

Benjamin Smith

Principal Technical Analyst

Messerschmidt Safety Consultants of Mississippi

US Senators Mark Pryor (D-AR) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) introduced new legislation on March 31, 2011 that would require the installation of Electronic On-board Recorders (EOBRs) in commercial vehicles to document drivers' compliance with Hours-of-Service (HOS) rules.

The March 31 press release indicates that the Commercial Driver Compliance Improvement Act will require the EOBRs to be tamper-resistant, identify the vehicle's operator and record driving time, communicate with the Engine Control Module (ECM), provide real-time location recording, and allow for the data to be accessed by law enforcement in roadside inspections.

Senators Pryor and Alexander's new legislation aims at enforcing HOS rules more effectively and accurately. In the press release, Pryor said, "The trucking industry faces the constant balancing act of keeping fatigued drivers off the road while ensuring stores are full of merchandise. After several meetings with the trucking industry and Senate hearings on highway safety, I believe the most effective solution is to require the use of electronic on-board recorders."

MSC Participates in the 2011 SAE World Congress

Benjamin Smith

Principal Technical Analyst

Messerschmidt Safety Consultants of Mississippi

For the third consecutive year, MSC was involved with the publication and presentation of new research for the SAE World Congress. This year MSC was represented by Benjamin Smith who coauthored a new research paper, "Data Extraction Methods and their Effects on the Retention of Event Data Contained in the Electronic Control Modules of Detroit Diesel and Mercedes-Benz Engines," (SAE 2011-01-0808), with David Plant and Timothy Austin.

This paper was presented along with research such as Ruth and Daily's paper on Event Data Recorder (EDR) accuracy, Bare, Everest, Floyd, and Nunan's research paper on sensing diagnostic module (SDM) pre-crash data transfer, and Austin and Farrell's paper on Caterpillar Electronic Control Module (ECM) snapshot data. In addition to the research papers presented, some of the technical sessions and discussions addressed accident reconstruction topics including drag sled accuracy and usage, forensic photogrammetry, and diesel engine retarder acceleration rates.

Bill Messerschmidt Presents at IAARS Annual Conference

On July 19, 2010, MSC’s Principal Technical Analyst, Bill Messerschmidt, had the opportunity to address the annual conference of the International Association of Accident Reconstruction Specialists (IAARS).

At this year’s conference, Bill provided a presentation on human factors in vehicle collision reconstruction, as well as a session on heavy vehicle Event Data Recorder (EDR) technology. Learn more about heavy vehicle EDRs.

The conference was held at the Mall of America Radisson Hotel in Bloomington, Minnesota, and was attended by civilian and law enforcement crash investigators and engineers from across the US and Canada.

Conference organizer and IAARS president Dan Lofgren said, “It was a very good seminar experience for all in attendance, in large part due to your presentations. We had very good feedback.” Positive feedback can be attributed in large part to the subject matter experts invited by IAARS and the excellent planning and facilities chosen by the organizers.

Other speakers included Dr. Frank Navin, Mr. Peter Murphy, Dr. Don Schmalzbauer, IAARS president Dan Lofgren, and textbook author Myron Lofgren. It was an honor for Bill and MSC to be included “on the ticket” with these people.

The cost of the conference was $75 for members of IAARS, and it provided ACTAR continuing education credits for accredited reconstruction experts. MSC is looking forward to the 2011 IAARS Conference.

MSC in Wisconsin Trooper Magazine

In February, Messerschmidt Safety Consulting was honored by inclusion in the cover story of the Spring 2010 issue of Wisconsin Trooper magazine. Wisconsin Trooper is the official quarterly publication of the Wisconsin State Trooper Association.

During 2009, Troopers from the Wisconsin State Patrol (WSP) made important contributions to two Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) technical papers. Sergeant Duane Meyers coauthored a technical paper with Dr. L. Daniel Metz, which looks at tire/road friction at high speeds (“Controlled Braking Experiments with and without ABS,” forthcoming SAE 2010-01-1000), and Trooper Tim Austin coauthored a technical paper with representatives of several other organizations (including MSC) on the effect that power failure has on event data recorders (EDRs) in heavy trucks (“Simulating the Effect of Collision-Related Power Loss on the Event Data Recorders of Heavy Trucks,” forthcoming SAE 2010-01-1004).

Wisconsin’s Technical Reconstruction Unit, of which Meyers and Austin are members, continues to make meaningful and valuable contributions to forensic science, accident investigation and reconstruction, and criminal justice. We at MSC are privileged to have had the opportunity to work with the WSP and to have been included in the Trooper Association’s quarterly magazine.

MSC Returns to Fox Valley for HVEDR Testing

Over Labor Day weekend, we returned to Appleton, Wisconsin, for another day of HVEDR/ECM testing at Fox Valley Technical College (FVTC). This was the fourth day of testing in a series of tests that we began in March. The testing has included controlled, instrumented tests of Detroit Diesel, Mercedes, Caterpillar, Cummins, and Mack trucks with EDR capabilities.

Thanks to the professional skill of Rob Behnke, Truck Driving Program Director for FVTC, and members of the Wisconsin State Patrol, we were able to complete over 50 fully-instrumented test runs, putting the total number of tests over 150 for 2009.

Over the fall and winter of 2009/2010, we’ll be preparing the data from these tests (along with a few more planned test runs) for publication in a variety of journals and industry publications. In addition, MSC is expecting to announce some big news on two fronts later this fall. We’ll announce the news through special editions of the MSC Newsletter and also on this blog as soon as the ink is dry!

Heavy Truck ECM Testing

Last week we began field testing for our latest ECM-related research project. Over the last decade, researchers and engineers have conducted a great deal of testing to validate data from the Event Data Recorders (EDRs) in heavy vehicles. Our goal is to build on this body of knowledge and learn more about how these devices capture data under the extreme circumstances that are often present in a crash. Scientifically, what we are trying to do is perform research that is "ecologically valid." In other words, research that very closely mimics what happens to the ECM in the environment we're interested in: the crash itself.

Since we can't simply go out and crash a lot of trucks (we've conducted over 80 controlled tests so far--going back to our initial testing in Hattiesburg, MS, in March), it has taken some creativity and skill! For this, we're indebted to the fine engineers and forensic scientists who are working on the project with MSC.

With the contributions of Tim Cheek (Delta[v] Forensic Engineers), Tim Austin (Wisconsin State Patrol) and Ben Smith (ASI Investigations), and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, we were able to test Mack and Cummins ECMs last week. Our testing will continue in September in Wisconsin, where our goal is to finish the testing.

WSP's ECM Field Guide

As of 11 June 2009, the Wisconsin State Patrol Technical Reconstruction Unit's (WSP TRU) ECM Field Guide is complete and ready for publication. The Guide contains instructions for identifying and handling Detroit Diesel, Caterpillar, Cummins, Mack, and Mercedes heavy truck ECMs, as well as the types of data that can be expected from them.

MSC is honored to have been asked to assist WSP Trooper Tim Austin with the final review and edits. Bill worked with Trooper Austin on some substantive issues, and MSC supplied photos of some of the rarer ECMs. Kelly also reviewed the document from a technical communication standpoint. This was a superb, well researched document before MSC was asked to assist, and we consider it a privilege to have had the opportunity to contribute to such a high quality piece of work.

MSC thanks Trooper Tim Austin, Sgt. Duane Meyers, and the rest of the professional Law Enforcement Officers of the WSP TRU for providing the industry with this outstanding guide!

The ECM Field Guide is available here, and can be downloaded, copied, and distributed as needed. The document is copyrighted by WSP, so please give credit to them if you reproduce it.

Bill Speaks at the Midwest Association of Technical Accident Investigators (MATAI) Annual Conference

On June 9, at the MATAI Annual Conference, Bill presented the results of Heavy Vehicle Event Data Recorder (EDR) testing that was conducted with the Wisconsin State Patrol last month at Fox Valley Technical College. The testing involved using heavy vehicles to simulate real-life events (such as a loss of power) to better understand how an Event Control Module (ECM) records data during accidents.

MATAI is a group of accident investigators from law enforcement, engineering, and academia, whose members represent eight states in the Midwest. Visit the MATAI website.

Other speakers at the conference included John Daily (pole impacts); Ron Heusser (truck brake systems); Dr. Daniel Metz (vehicle dynamics); Rick Ruth (automobile EDRs); and Jim Sobek (conspicuity). About 125 people attended this year's conference at the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin.

Testing with the Wisconsin State Patrol

The photo above shows some of our test equipment on a MCI Motorcoach. The bus was outfitted with two VC-4000 tri-axial accelerometers. The bus's motion was also measured by a Stalker RADAR and high-speed video. This bus was equipped with air disc brakes, an automatic transmission, and a DDC Series 60 engine with DDEC IV ECM.

We had several goals when conducting this test, including examining the effects of specific driver inputs on the Last Stop Record. Like the rest of the tests we conducted at Fox Valley, the goal was to replicate real-world post-crash scenarios to see how the Event Data Recorder interpreted what happened.


The photo above shows us creating a Hard Brake record with an International tractor and DDC motor. If you look closely at the left-hand side of the photo, you can see the smoke boiling from the drive axle. This was a really, really fun day!

The results of all of this testing (as much as we can fit, anyway) will be presented at the Midwest Association of Technical Accident Investigator's Annual Conference, during the second week in June.

Mississippi Association for Justice

On Friday, March 27th, Bill was a presenter at the Mississippi Association for Justice, Trucking Litigation Seminar in Jackson, MS. Bill and Tim Corbitt spoke about "Unlocking Black Box and ECM Data."