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 1, SESSION 3

Bill Messerschmidt
Manager
Messerschmidt Safety Consultants

Session Three of the SAE 2011 Highway Vehicle EDR Symposium has five speakers who are trucking safety professionals discussing their and their companies' experience with Electronic On-Board Recorders (EOBRs) and various Event Data Recorder (EDR) systems.

The first speaker after lunch was Jerry Waddell from Cargo Transporters. Mr. Waddell discussed their positive experience with Critical Event Reporting, especially in notifying management of hard brake events.

The second speaker is Brett Graves from Maverick Transportation. Maverick Transportation is using predictive modeling to enhance the safety of their fleet. Their predictive models have greatly reduced their reportable and preventable rates per million miles.

The third speaker is Michael Baker from Usher Transport. Usher Transport has had only five rollovers in the 27 years that Mr. Baker has been there in safety. WOW!!! Some statistics from his presentation: 1/5 rollovers have two contributing factors: inattention and drowsiness. 1/5 rollovers results from excessive cornering speed. Lowering a trailer three inches increases stability by 10%. More stats: freeway off-ramps account for 7% of rollovers; interstate highways account for about 31%. State highways account for the remaining 68%. Forty-seven percent of rollovers result from lane departures. Only 9% result from cornering too fast.

The fourth speaker is James Burg of James Burg Trucking Company (JBTC). JBTC uses Drivecam Video Event Recorders and hauls normal and oversized loads. JBTC uses Drivecam as a training tool and also in incident and crash investigations. It has helped with company policy compliance, driving safety, and driver training. JBTC really works to make their drivers better drivers.

The fifth speaker is Sam Faucette from Old Dominion Freight Line. Old Dominion is the largest LTL carrier using EOBRs. They use a list of several variables that are monitored in order to evaluate safe, efficient operations. Like the other companies, they are turning "data" into useful information.

All five companies represented have one thing in common. They view safety as a human issue and rely on the EDR systems as tools to help the safety manager make good decisions and improve driver performance. Although they each use different techniques and different tools, they are all focused on developing high quality, well-trained, professional drivers.

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

SAE to Hold 2011 EDR Symposium, June 6-8

Kelly Messerschmidt

Technical Communications Manager

Messerschmidt Safety Consultants

The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) will hold an Event Data Recorder (EDR) Symposium at the Institute Conference Center, in Danville, Virginia, June 6-8, 2011.

MSC’s Bill Messerschmidt will be speaking at the EDR Symposium on analyzing driver behavior using HVEDR data, during the second Unique Applications session, on June 8^th. This year’s event marks the fourth EDR Symposium held since 1999.

The SAE 2011 EDR Symposium includes 38 speakers from the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Switzerland, Germany, and Sweden. These 38 speakers include university researchers, government researchers, trucking company executives and safety managers, industry engineers and executives, and consultants. Read about the speakers.

Technical sessions include Video Data Recorder applications, Standards Development, Passenger Car EDRs, International Activities, and Unique Applications.

You can learn more about the 2011 EDR Symposium at the SAE website. The links on the page include registration, travel, and exhibitor information, as well as speaker bios and descriptions of the technical sessions.

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.

MSC Conducts Heavy Vehicle EDR Testing

In conjunction with the Wisconsin State Patrol, DP Plant & Associates, and Fox Valley Technical College, Benjamin Smith of MSC conducted research tests on Heavy Vehicle Event Data Recorders (EDRs) last week. This testing was performed on Mercedes Benz and Detroit Diesel engines and took place at the Fox Valley Technical College driving course in Appleton, Wisconsin.

Over 35 tests were run in an effort to strengthen and supplement current research projects. These tests will be included in a publication to be released in mid-2011. They are part of a larger research effort that has been in operation since early 2009.

MSC thanks Fox Valley Technical College for having generously donated the use of test vehicles, test engines, test facilities, and staff. Smith says, “Our team’s research projects would not be possible without Fox Valley Technical College and their dedication to science and technology.”

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.

Mack Truck EDR Downloads

It is common knowledge among vehicle collision investigators that the electronic engine controls in Mack Trucks contain an event data recording function. Mack has supported this technology since 1998, when the V-MAC III system came online. Today V-MAC III and V-MAC IV systems both support the collection of event data often associated with collisions, rollovers, and other mishaps.

The difficulty for investigators has been in getting these valuable data. During 2007, the turnaround time for having data extracted from the electronic controls and then returned to the investigator often was longer than six months.

In 2008, Mack Trucks took steps to solve this problem--selecting two Third Party Authorized Providers of the data extraction service. The Authorized Providers are Delta-V Forensic Engineers in Charlotte, NC and KEVA Engineering in Camarillo, CA.

The immediate result was a drastic reduction in turnaround time with no additional cost.

Recently, Delta-V and KEVA launched a website to help inform the public about Mack data extraction services. The site contains the required forms, addresses, and instructions for obtaining event data from Mack trucks.

Many of us hope that Mack will allow the software and hardware to be publicly distributed; however, until then, we have a much improved system with relatively short turnaround time, guaranteed competence of the engineer performing the extraction, and excellent (in our experience) customer support.

The URL for this new website is: www.hvedr.com.