You have right to remain silent; you car may not

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Raleigh police are building a second-degree murder case against a man accused of drunken driving in part by using a small on-board computer in the man's car. If he's like most people, he didn't know it was there.Investigators obtained a search warrant that allowed them to extract information from an instrument known as an event data recorder in the 2001 Cadillac Deville that Kenya Teverris Alston, 31, was driving when he struck a Honda early on March 1. The Honda's driver, Matthew Kraft, 21, was killed. The recorder is a computer under a vehicle's floorboard. It stores information immediately before and after a crash, such as how fast the vehicle was traveling and whether the driver braked or was using his seat belt, turn signals and headlights. It's similar to the black box found on aircraft. Sixty-four percent of motor vehicles on the road in the United States are equipped with the recorders, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is responsible for vehicle safety and motor vehicle laws. But auto manufacturers don't advertise the devices, and many drivers aren't aware of them, dealers say. Car sellers will be federally required by 2011 to tell new car buyers whether a vehicle has a recorder."It's an invaluable tool for research," said Rae Tyson, NHTSA public affairs chief. "But there are other issues dealing with privacy that have to be resolved by the courts. Until then, we are not going to require auto manufacturers to equip their cars with EDRs." Depending on future federal court rulings, much more sophisticated recorders could recall a driver's medical condition before, during and after a crash. Some recorders in NASCAR and Indy 500 series cars can collect a race driver's medical information, Tyson said. The auto industry's primary goal in installing the devices is occupant safety, said Jim Harris, owner of Harris Technical Services in Port St. Lucie, Fla., which provides reconstruction analysis in court cases involving auto accidents. Manufacturers have relied on test dummies to help determine vehicle safety, Harris explained. With the recorders, carmakers can use "real world data, with real people involved. We can't stop an accident, but, with the EDR, we can record it and see how we can improve" outcomes.But some question the need to equip cars to gather information that can be used against the owner in legal matters. Early last year, the nonprofit National Motorist Association Foundation helped write a bill in Congress aimed at what it considers the potential misuse of auto "black boxes," including cases such as Alston's. On its Web site, the association, while not objecting to safety research with EDRs, disparaged the "self-surveillance" at the expense of drivers, who may not be aware of the device.In addition to police gathering evidence in traffic cases, the recorders also benefit insurance companies that want to investigate claims, lawyers who want their clients exonerated and auto manufacturers. Some GM and Ford models were among the first to be equipped with the device in 1996, said Sgt. Joseph Sadler, a veteran North Carolina State Highway Patrol member who works with an accident reconstruction team. Now, gathering recorder data from vehicles involved in accidents has become standard practice across the state whenever investigators face unanswered questions about a wreck. He estimates the Highway Patrol pulls EDR information from about 30 wrecked vehicles each year in Wake County, which includes Raleigh. "We are going to use them more and more, because more vehicles have them to corroborate other physical evidence," Sadler said. Crash investigators still rely mostly on skid marks and tire impressions in the roadway, witness statements and vehicle damage, said Lt. Everett Clendenin, a Highway Patrol spokesman. "But now we have this other tool." In the Raleigh case, police have accused Alston of fleeing from a pursuing officer and speeding at an estimated 71 mph in a 45-mph zone before crashing into the driver's side of Kraft's Honda. Police said Alston tried to flee on foot. Police won't say what data they pulled from Alston's EDR. They guard the information as they do any crime scene evidence, to be disclosed at trial if needed. E-mail Thomasi McDonald at thomasi.mcdonald(at)newsobserver.com.(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)