I first got told this a few weeks ago and dismissed it as an urban legend.

Then today without me prompting him a mechanic told me again

No doubt everyone on here knows and i was the last person to find out.

But if you have an air bag in your car, then you have a black box style recorder that will give data to police and insurance companys should the air bag be activated.

It gives data for the last few minute only, but enough to verify the speed of the car, the time the brakes were applied and speed at impact.

What other spy in the car do we have?

I have tried google etc but cannot find single article on this

found some links

http://www.johncglennon.com/automobiledatarecorders.cfm

and this

http://www.airbagcrash.com/

best link by far
http://www.arkfeld.com/resource%20material...02003%20Inc.pdf

I guess the point is if you are not exceeding the speed limits then the 'black box' can record whatever it likes..... <rolleyes>

If it really *is* true, why are the papers not full of headlines saying "Driver caught by airbag sensor"....?

Note that all these links are from America?

Yup. I imagine if they tried that here, the sensors would suffer the same fate as the dustbin sensors here in Bournemouth. Apparently everyone got together, ripped them out of the bins and dumped then at the town hall!!

<roflmao>

Not only that, but - and I mean nothing against our American friends here by the way - but, America is one of the most, if not THE most litigous countries in the world. a trend unfortunatly spreading here.

When you said black box I though you meant this

I am sure there is an ineundo line i could use there but cannot think of one............... she's certainly got a good figure on her ;)


Though the links are to american sites, as Ford is popular in the UK we have chryslar etc why would they not have them on UK cars.
As the Russian cosmanought said in Armageddon, "American parts Russian parts ALL MADE IN TAIWAN"
<roflmao>

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2...15875-20837122/

It took a year, but is this the proof you wanted? <flirt>

It's 2008 and people are still getting into cars when they are drunk. Very sad. <grrr>
That person will probably serve a few years in prison and then be free to resume their life. Those victims will never be able to resume their lifes.
In my opinion, if you drive a car when you know you are drunk you are no better than a murderer.
As for the black box, so what. If it helps put law breakers in prison then what's the problem with it.

It does frustrate me when people drink and drive habitually yet the police increasingly rely on speed traps and cameras instead of having on the road enforcement.

The increase in drink driving recently is because there are so few police cars on the road. The police are more interested in pursuing the hidden camera tax. If my mum can be done for 37 in a 30 (and she is not a habitual speeder), how can anyone claim that speed cameras are not financially motivated?

There was a US Congressman from Dakota, I believe, who was speeding, ran a stop sign and killed a man on a motorbike. He was convicted based on the data recovered from the black box showing his speed exceeded 80 MPH at the point the accident occured.

Fair enough.

As I understand it, the speed is recorder from the airbag system because the airbag needs to know how fast you are going to deploy, otherwise it would go off at the slightest fender bender.

To me, there is nothing wrong with speed or speeding, just as long as it is in appropriate circumstances and road conditions. I mean, 100MPH on an empty motorway in a capable and safe car is probably less dangerous that 40mph in a residential area in a car with defective brakes.

I would love to know the crash statistics for the parts of the Autobahn that have no limits compared to the average crash statistics for our major motorways.

They must fair very well or the PC brigade would be ramming those figures down our throats i.e. speed kills look at what happens on the Autobahns compared to our pedestrian speed motorways.

I really enjoyed driving on those roads and not worrying about speed. That said its two years since I last drove there and maybe its not the same?

According to Wiki

Killed per 1 Billion Vehicles·km (Motorways in 2003)
UK:2.0
Germany:3.8

Killed per 1 Billion Vehicles·km (Non-Motorways in 2003)
UK:9.3
Germany:12.4

There are various other statistics in the table listed for a number of different countries

I guess once you get above a certain speed, the statistics won't change much because all crashes (miracles excepted) will most likely be fatal. The autobahn has a pretty good track record, but as soon as it gets wet/foggy/etc there are some pretty horrific multi car pile ups. Of course the majority of drivers know this and drive to the conditions. It's often foreign plated vehicle that you still see driving like a bat out of hell in marginal conditions. Guess they don't want to let a little bit of bad weather get in the way of the novelty of their one chance to be able to drive as fast as they want...
You may not have much chance of stopping in time at 70mph, but you are going to have even less chance at 80-100mph, and will be carrying 10-30mph more speed into the impact, which could be the difference between life and death. Speed can kill, but it's seldom the only factor in a fatal accident imo. It's often the lack of driver ability/experience to handle the car at that speed, or an unexpected obstacle (including weather related road conditions) suddenly appearing in the path of the vehicle which is just compounded by the speeding issue.

oh, the luxury of 100mph. the speed limit on the motorway here is a miserable 50mph ans 24mph on normal roads. You do re-adjust though. 100mph/160kph feels like rocket speeds now.

Possibly the easiest way to reduce the speeds is to change to kph.

You are based in Japan aren't you dazzer?
I looked up the stats for Japan as comparison and it's interesting to note, the number of fatalities are basically the same as Germany has, with it's unlimited speed limit zones...ok the numbers are for 5 years ago, but still.... <think>

Killed per 1 Billion Vehicles·km (Motorways in 2003)
Japan:4.0
Germany:3.8

Killed per 1 Billion Vehicles·km (Non-Motorways in 2003)
Japan:11.9
Germany:12.4

On the upshot, for all the evils of the motor car and the anti road lobby ramming crap down our throats, the UK have safer roads than most countries, despite their state of disrepair.

I also note that the UK has the busiest motorways, probably down to 12 year of under investment in road building. <thumbsdown>

I know who i blame for that... <whistle>

Don't mention it. It was obviously the mistakes of the previous government that caused it.

<sarcasm>

Here's a useful website. Quite a few tips for dealing with tricky situation without resorting to yobbo driving.

http://www.safespeed.org.uk/index1.html