Addition of Crash Data Analysis Services

KBE⁺ has long supported legal case investigation and analysis and have now added the ability to analyze pre-crash data to add to the material that can be discovered prior to litigation.

Pre-crash data is one of the most valuable sources of information in accident reconstruction and root cause analysis.  As part of the ever-evolving suite of services and areas of expertise that the Engineers of KBE⁺ offer to our clients, we have been quietly developing our skill set in the area of pre-crash data acquisition and analysis.  After numerous successfully supported and defended cases, we now are formally adding these services to our portfolio.  We are skilled in the use the Bosch Crash Data Recorder (CDR) system in obtaining information from the Event Data Recorder (EDR), the in-vehicle black-box if you will. We are also now fully certified in its use vai implementation of the Bosch systems group.

We have supported attorneys in their quest to obtain definitive information to answer, “who is at faut”.  Our Engineers have successfully supported a number of legal firms is some fairly high-profile cases involving major OEMs.  We have successfully argued design issues in class action suites and realized through these efforts the need to combine design defect analysis to the situation caused by the defect.  To state it simply, it is not a complete picture to just identify a design defect.  For real value to the legal community we support, there needs to be a causal link to the determinantal outcome of the defect.

In many cases, when a vehicle suffers a major driveline fault, there is typically a follow-on and unavoidable event (accident or some such adverse result) that the defense attorneys need to definitively tie to the root cause.  We realized that although our legal support services were exemplary and soot after by many of the top legal firms in the country, we were not doing all that we could and should to support of client.  To that end, KBE⁺ made a commitment to become one of the leading experts in the filed of crash data recovery.  We invite you to contact us and discuss your needs or case details and let us support you.

Disputes between the various parties involved in an accident arise regarding the cause of the accident or from the simple standpoint of who remembered what.  Having a qualified forensic engineer download and interpret data stored on the event data recorder in the vehicle, or vehicle “black box”, can resolve disputes quickly.

When a vehicle equipped with an EDR deploys airbags, the EDR records and preserves data about the accident. Often, low speed collisions generate data even if the airbags are not deployed.  However, non-deployment data can be overwritten after a certain number of ignition cycles.  Therefore, forensic engineers should retrieve this crucial data as soon as possible.

Forensic engineers use valuable data from Event Data Recorders to analyze vehicle accidents quickly and effectively.  EDR data can solve the following issues in a vehicle accident:

• How fast the vehicle was going at the time of the accident
• Identify any abnormal driver inputs or anomalies in the vehicle leading up to the collision
• An assessment of the severity of the accident
• Determine if there was an underlying defect or issue with the vehicle that may have contributed to accident
• Verify that the data corroborates with the observers statements