Crashing in - accident data

Further to your response to CS of N19 regarding a collision with a police car, you may like to know that - certainly for Metropolitan Police vehicles - most (if not all) are fitted with a data recorder. In the event of an accident, the driver is required to press a button, which triggers the data transfer. Amongst the parameters recorded are vehicle speed, acceleration and (critically for CS's friend), whether or not the public warning equipment ('PWE' in police-speak: 'blues-and-two's' to the rest of us) were operating.

It may be, of course, that CS isn't giving the full picture and that the reason why the solicitor is advising his friend that it's too difficult to win is because the police accident investigation (which is carried out by a supervisor - sergeant or above - from traffic division) has demonstrated that the PWE was operating prior to the accident and sufficiently long for his friend to have become aware of the approaching police car in 'response mode'.

Asked on 19 September 2010 by MA, via email

Answered by Honest John
That is interesting. In fact, most cars these days have some sort of data recording. Even my FIAT 500 does. Manufacturers use it to avoid spurious warranty claims. I entirely agree with you that "maybe CS isn't giving the full picture", which partly explains my response to him.
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