Personal Injury Law - Devin Petelski case shows importance of automobile on-board computers

On October 15, 2009, Devin Petelski died in a motor vehicle accident when her vehicle was struck by an LAPD car that was responding to a call. This recent Los Angeles Times article on the accident highlights the increasing importance on data from the on-board computer that are in most recently-manufactured cars and trucks. The LAPD officers reported they were traveling 40-45 mph and LAPD accident reconstruction experts estimated the LAPD vehicle was traveling about 50 mph.  However, data recovered from the LAPD vehicle's computer indicated the LAPD vehicle was traveling as fast as 78 mph.  The case settled soon after this data came to light.

In the pre-vehicle computer days, determining fault from an accident was largely based on testimony from the drivers and witnesses and on analysis from accident reconstruction experts.  As this case shows, determining liability in a motor vehicle accident has been an inexact science as witnesses are often unreliable and experts' analysis are based on assumptions that may or may not be true. On-board computers are changing that and it is now a factor in every significant crash.