| CDR Updates and Current News
Attention
Police Chiefs
Internal Affairs Investigators
Lead Accident Reconstructionists
Private Practice Reconstructionists
If one of your Crown Victoria Police Interceptor
vehicles has an accident with a civilian vehicle and people are
injured, you naturally want to know the facts as to what happened.
You may not yet be aware that 2005 and later Crown Victoria vehicles
have an second, much more powerful event data recorder
than the Restraint Control Modules found in 2001-2004
Crown Victorias. It is located in the Powertrain Control Module
(PCM). If airbags or seat belt pretensioners deployed, the vehicle
is designed to store vehicle speed, brake on/off, ABS on/off,
accelerator pedal position, and other parameters for 20 seconds
before the crash and 5 seconds after the crash at 0.2 seconds
intervals. The vehicle is designed to set a data “locking”
signal when airbags or seat belt pretensioners deploy. Under some
circumstances, such as electrical short circuits caused by crash
damage, or complete power loss in the vehicle, the locking signal
may not get set. You need to be aware that in the absence of a
lock signal that the recorder is designed to continuously overwrite
itself, and after 25 seconds of power on without a lock signal,
the data relevant to the event is overwritten and lost. If airbags
do not deploy, but the key is turned off in less than 25 seconds
of the event, there will be speed/brake/accelerator information
relevant to the event that can still be retrieved.
There are documented instances where there
was a severe crash, power was lost, but a well meaning investigator
restored power to check other functions in the vehicle or read
out the Restraint Control Module event data recorder. That
well meaning investigator unintentionally spoliated the best evidence
of what happened during the event.
Your department needs to be aware that the
best way to preserve this evidence is to train driving officers
to turn the key off as soon as possible after an event. (For example,
if the key was turned off 15 seconds after the event, there would
still be 10 seconds of precrash data available to investigators).
Investigators can also be trained to secure evidence after a crash
by pocketing the keys, and/or unplugging the Powertrain Control
Module (PCM) under the hood. Unplugging the module is the most
effective way to prevent accidental spoliation of any evidence
remaining in the PCM. The PCM can also be secured by removing
it, it only takes unscrewing one bolt and pulling the PCM out
of two clips to get it out. Your department may want to consider
adopting policies or procedures for securing PCM evidence after
a crash of one of your vehicles.
This data can be accessed using the
Bosch "Crash Data Retrieval" (CDR) system with the new
Ford PCM adaptor and new version 3.0 or higher software
that is expected to be available approximately November 15, 2007,
barring unforeseen problems developing during the final testing
taking place at this time (visit www.cdr-system.com
to order the Ford PCM adaptor when available). Beta testers can
read modules now to aid internal investigations, with the understanding
that modules should be re-read with the final production software
and hardware if the evidence is needed for use in court.
- Hire someone who has the equipment and
training to read it for you and to explain how to appropriately
use the data in your specific accident. It can cost as little
as $500 for you to mail a module into a laboratory, get it read
out, and have a skilled user spend up to an hour with your investigator
explaining what the data means in your accident scenario.
- Purchase a Bosch CDR System for approximately
$2600 + $395 for software, and send an officer to training for
one day to operate it and 3-4 days additional days to analyze
the data and use it properly in an accident reconstruction.
If you already have a Bosch CDR kit with a current annual software
upgrade subscription to automatically receive the Version 3.0
update when released, the only additional purchase would be
a Ford PCM adaptor and cable hardware kit when it becomes available
around Nov. 15, 2007. The cost will be less than $1000 (Bosch
has not set pricing as of this writing).
- You can network with other agencies that
have a trained/certified operator and have purchased the software
upgrade and PCM hardware kit already.
While the primary intent of this letter is
to alert you to the risk of evidence spoliation in accidents involving
your own police vehicles, you should also be aware that this event
data recorder is in many other Ford vehicles and can be of significant
value in traffic homicide and other serious injury automobile
accidents. The Bosch CDR kit has been able to get pre-crash vehicle
speed out of many 1999 and earlier GM vehicles, but with this
new release can get precrash vehicle speed out of Ford vehicles
equipped with Electronic Throttle Control (ETC). If was first
introduced in low volume in 2003, is in more than half the 2005’s,
and is in almost all new Ford vehicles today. Until this new Bosch
release, only Ford Motor Company could read the modules for law
enforcement. This new release raises the percentage of vehicles
covered by CDR from approximately 20% to about 25%. Subject to
successful completion of field testing, the new release is intended
to cover selected 2005 and later Chrysler vehicles as well.
If you need more information about the Ford
PCM data recorder or how to read the information in it, you can
contact Richard R. Ruth, P.E. at (313) 910-5809, or by email at
ruthconsulting@comcast.net.
Mr. Ruth is a retired Ford Motor Company engineering manager that
personally read event data recorders for law enforcement regularly,
and who helped Ford release the ability to read these modules
to Bosch. He assists the Collision Safety Institute in training
and certifying police officers to use the Bosch Crash Data Retrieval
System. He does not charge for initial consultations.
A sample Ford PCM readout and instructions
for locating the PCM and securing it can be found at www.ruthconsulting.com.
- 2003-2005 Ford Thunderbird (vehicle went out of production
after 2005)
- 2003-2006 Lincoln LS (vehicle went out of production after
2006)
- 2004 Ford F150 (new platform only – NOT Heritage model)
- 2004-2007 Ford Explorer/Mercury Mountaineer
- 2005-2007 Ford F150, 2006 Mark LT
- 2005-2007 Ford Econoline (gasoline engines only – NOT
Diesel)
- 2005-2006 Ford Expedition/Lincoln Navigator
- 2005-2007 Ford F Super Duty (250/350/450/550) (gas engines
only - NOT Diesel)
- 2005-2007 Ford Mustang
- 2005-2007 Ford 500/Mercury Montego/Ford Freestyle
- 2006-2007 Ford Fusion/Mercury Milan/Lincoln Zephyr 06/Lincoln
MKZ 07
- 2007 Ford Edge/Lincoln MKX
- 2007 Ford Explorer Sport Trac
- 2007 Ford Expedition – Some are covered, some are not,
depending upon supplier of the PCM
2008 Models are
expected to be covered in the future
- Ford Ranger
- Ford Focus
- Ford Escape/Mercury Mariner (except Hybrid)
- Ford Freestar/Mercury Monterey
- Ford Taurus/Mercury Sable (2005-2007) (Note: 2008 Taurus/Taurus
X will be covered)
- Ford GT
- Lincoln Aviator
- CDR Equipment Description: Bosch ETAS Group
http://www.boschdiagnostics.net/products/CDR/
- CDR Equipment Distributor: I Got Hit LLC
http://www.cdr-system.com/
- CDR Operator/Analyst Training: Collision
Safety Institute
http://www.collisionsafety.net/
at the upcoming CDR User's Conference January 28-30,
2008 in Houston, Texas. Registration is open for
this conference but space is filling quickly.
For more information on the CDR User's Conference and to
register please visit: http://www.crashconferences.com/cdrconference/2008/index.html
Save $200 by registering
before December 15, 2008 |
About Ruth Consulting
Richard Ruth recently retired from Ford Motor company after 33
years in a wide variety of product engineering and product planning
positions, spending the last 10 years managing Ford Design Analysis
Engineers that provide technical analysis to Ford's Office of
the General Counsel in product liability lawsuits and Ford Product
Development in field investigations. As a "working manager",
Richard has personally handled many restraints related internal
Ford field investigations, gathered appropriate technical documents
for discovery, gave corporate and expert depositions and trial
testimony, and provided technical assistance to the National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), NTSB, NICB, law enforcement
and third party inquiries. Put his insider's knowledge and perspective
to work for you.
Based in Dearborn , Michigan, Ruth Consulting, LLC offers professional
services, nationwide, to assist in any automotive restraints related
area including safety belts, safety belt pretensioners, frontal
airbags, side impact airbags and curtains, safety canopy for rollover,
and other pyrotechnic restraint system controlled safety devices.
Richard Ruth, P.E. is uniquely qualified in Event Data Recorders
and airbag system performance including deployment thresholds.
>> www.ruthconsulting.com
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