|
|
|
|
|
Pa. Senate wants hearings on bill about data recorders in vehicles Tom Barnes, Post-Gazette Harrisburg Bureau | May 2 2006 HARRISBURG -- A bill to require car dealers to tell car buyers if an automobile contains an event data recorder, or EDR, that records accident-related information, suffered a serious setback yesterday. Instead of voting on the bill, as supporters had hoped, the state Senate voted to delay action by sending it back to the Transportation Committee. The panel will hold hearings around the state this summer, but the measure won't come up for a vote before October, said Sen. Roger Madigan, R-Bradford, transportation chairman. Mr. Madigan, a co-sponsor of the bill, was disappointed at yesterday's action, calling it "bad for consumers." The bill had two main features. It would have required a car dealer to inform a consumer whether the vehicle he or she was buying contained an EDR, a small box with a microchip that records automobile-related data covering the last five seconds before an accident. EDRs have been put into some cars for the last 10 years or so, but not all makes or models have them. They're akin to airplane "black boxes," which are used to help determine what caused a plane to crash. A car's EDR tells investigators whether the driver was wearing a seat belt, how fast the driver was going, the direction the car was headed and whether the driver was braking or accelerating at the time of the accident. Secondly, the bill would have given a car's owner the sole authority to release, or not release, his car's EDR contents. A court order would have been required if a car owner refused to release the information. Many car buyers don't even know if their cars have EDRs, Mr. Madigan said. The EDR information can sometimes be used against a driver in a lawsuit by the lawyer for another motorist involved in an accident. It could also be used by the driver's own insurance company to raise his rates, especially if the driver was speeding, Mr. Madigan said. Officials of the insurance industry and trial lawyers association had expressed concerns about the bill, Mr. Madigan said. Insurance industry spokesman Sam Marshall said EDRs serve a valuable purpose in reconstructing accidents and determining who was at fault. Sen. J. Barry Stout, D-Washington, who also supported the bill, said using EDR data against a driver -- especially if he didn't even know his car had such a device -- is a form of "Big Brother" intrusion against consumers. But Mr. Marshall said such concerns are overblown. Some trial lawyers opposed the bill's requirement for a judge to issue a court order in order to overrule a driver's refusal to release the EDR information. They said a simple subpoena, issued by a lawyer, should be sufficient.
---------------------------------------------------
Prison Planet.tv: The Premier Multimedia Subscription Package: Download and Share the Truth! Please help our fight against the New World Order by giving a donation. As bandwidth costs increase, the only way we can stay online and expand is with your support. Please consider giving a monthly or one-off donation for whatever you can afford. You can pay securely by either credit card or Paypal. Click here to donate. |
