Kentucky Senator Julian Carroll has introduced legislation thatwould protect information on event data recorders (“black boxes”),which are found in some vehicles.

Senate Bill 34 states that any retrieved data from the deviceshall not be revealed to anyone without the consent of the owner.The proposed legislation would even deny insurance companies accessto the recorded information unless permission was granted by thevehicle owner. The current Kentucky law states that insurers andcar manufacturers have access to EDR material after an accidentwithout notifying the vehicle owner.

Some see this action as a way of withholding information thatmay be valuable to insurers and policyholders when investigating anaccident.

“What we are getting from the EDR is really just another sort ofautomated element of what we have always had as part of aninvestigation,” said John Eager, director of claim services for theProperty and Casualty Insurers Association of America. “We havebeen really consistent in saying that insurers should have accessto the EDR information because it is used in the claims and it isan element of physical damage. There are a variety of good thingsfor consumers that would come out of using the information.Blocking that information doesn't seem like it would do anybody andgood.”