GENERAL ASSEMBLY: "Lawmakers debate merits, drawbacks of automotive "black boxes""

FRANKFORT — With event data recorders becoming more commonplace on vehicles across the country, lawmakers should be thinking about legislation to deal with their use, a national expert told lawmakers today.

Tom Kowalick, President of Click, Inc., spoke to members of the Interim Joint Committee on Transportation, raising several questions that legislators will wrestle with in upcoming sessions. EDRs, he said, monitor vehicle data such as speed, braking, and steering, and are already in use in more than 60 percent of vehicles on American highways.

Air bags make use of such data to determine when they should deploy, Kowalick noted. Recording isn't constant, but is triggered by incidents such as sudden braking. In that sense vehicle EDRs are different than airplane "black boxes" or other electronic monitoring equipment on tractor-trailers.

"If your vehicle has been manufactured since 1998, there is a good chance your vehicle has this technology in it," Kowalick said. Eleven states have already passed laws regulating access to the data, and Kentucky should consider mandates on the technology as well as legal parameters for the information's use, he said.

Law enforcement and the courts can use the data to determine the cause of an accident, said Rep. Johnny Bell, D-Glasgow, but a subpoena or other court order may be needed.

Legislators raised several questions regarding how to obtain access to the data and who should be able to. Rep. Carolyn Belcher, D-Owingsville, asked whether someone buying a used car could use the EDR to discover that the vehicle had been involved in an accident that had went unreported.

Sen. Dick Roeding, R-Lakeside Park, also said that hydroplaning vehicles, as well as vehicles skidding on ice, would feed misleading data into the EDRs.

Federal legislation will mandate uniformity for EDRs by 2011, Kowalick said, but states must decide for themselves how to use the data they provide — for instance, how insurance companies can use the data collected on the vehicles involved in accidents.

"The challenge is to strike a balance between privacy concerns and the quest for the freedom to travel safely," he said.