New technology helps determine fault in car accidents

On Behalf of | Dec 22, 2021 | Motor Vehicle Accidents |

Technology in cars has increased dramatically in the last 20 years. There are now more computerized systems in cars than there have ever been in the past, and a lot of automated systems are designed to help people drive. Examples include everything from lane departure warning signals to a vehicle’s semi-autonomous driving systems that can even brake or steer the car for you.

One other offshoot of this advancement in technology is that some of these systems have been used to help determine fault in car accidents. This is information that wasn’t possible to obtain a few decades before, but it now can shed some light on what happened.

The use of a black box

For instance, many newer vehicles have a black box that is similar to the data recorder used in an airplane. This box can record things such as how fast someone was driving when they hit the brakes and when their airbags deployed.

If you get involved in an accident with someone, looking at this can show how it happened. For example, it may be clear that they didn’t hit the brakes until a split second before impact. This is a likely indicator that they were not looking at the road and did not know they were about to crash. They may have been distracted, they may have been under the influence of drugs or they may have been driving while intoxicated, but something made it so that they reacted too slowly and they caused the crash.

This is just one example, but it does show how car accident cases are changing. If you’ve been injured by someone else in a crash, it’s time to consider how to seek financial compensation for your injuries.