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.

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.