Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Crash investigation - MCSD Unit 560 - black box? video cam?

The crash on Dean Street involving squad car 560 of the McHenry County Sheriff's Department earlier this week was investigated by the Woodstock Police Department, since it was in their jurisdiction.

What will it conclude was the cause? Deer avoidance?

If so, does the evidence at the scene support that conclusion?

Normally, at a crash scene spray paint is used to mark where a vehicle left the roadway and where it ended up. That was done on Davis Road, when MCSD investigated the crash on July 1, 2012, that claimed two lives.

But it wasn't done in this investigation involving a County police vehicle. Did the squad car drift off the roadway about 39 yards south of the 35MPH speed limit sign? Did it travel up the shoulder and then take out the speed limit sign and post? Or did it leave the roadway suddenly (to avoid a deer) but then continue up the shoulder after running over the sign? How did parts end up so far north of the sign?

Does the squad car have a "black box"? Will it reveal speed and any turning movements? Brake application? Impact? What does a "black box" in a squad car record?

Did the driver activate the emergency lights immediately after impact? If so, any in-car video camera might have saved the previous 30-60 seconds of the car's movement. Can a deer be seen in the headlights of the car? Will Woodstock PD view that video, or will the accident investigation team at MCSD study it?

The combination of point/time-of-impact, in-car video, black box and then Department radio traffic or cell phone usage ought to tell the whole story.

How thorough will the Woodstock PD and the MCSD crash investigations be?

What's the purpose of a thorough investigation? To get at not only the cause of this crash but to use the information as a training tool for all deputies.

5 comments:

Notawannabee said...

I bet you don't even know how the "Black Box' functions.

I bet you don't even know the process for gathering the data off the 'Black Box"

I bet you couldn't find the 'Black Box" in a car if your life depended on it.

I bet this post doesn't see the light of day.

Now you want Woodstock to look at the black box and determine all this mystical information for this great traffic whodunit.

For crying out loud, this isn't the crime of the century or a major crash like the one on Davis Rd.

Do you want a pound of flesh from the deputy? A ticket? An internal? You are as much saying the deputy lied.

Call the NTSB, CSI, Ghost Busters or dig up Chief Dan Mathews" from the grave (10-4 10-4)of the old series Highway Patrol (actor Broderick Crawford). Regardless who you call They'll all tell you your off your med's.

BTW check YouTube for the series Highway Patrol its a real hoot. You'll love it becuase he runs with red lights and siren everywhere.

Maverick50 said...

Good point Gus. The us taxpayers have a right to know how this accident occurred. We have to flip the bill, so why the shabby handling of the accident. The deputies sure the hell aren't doing anything else. Maybe Notawannabee is wealthy and doesn't give a crap how his tax dollars are being spent... I DO! Less than a mile away there's a road with speeders EVERY DAY. The cops good fill a ticket book in less than a day. That would a be an accomplishment!

Notawannabee said...

I promised myself a couple years ago I would never read these blogs again but against better judgment, read it again. I've been watching and notice that the people previously posting are gone. Probably promised the same thing and abandoned this Looney site. But on this topic, I just can't NOT reply to this craziness. It’s like driving past a car crash. It’s morbid curiosity.

[Gus] “Normally, at a crash scene spray paint is used to mark where a vehicle left the roadway and where it ended up. That was done on Davis Road, when MCSD investigated the crash on July 1, 2012, that claimed two lives.”

Untrue. The only time they PAINT is where there is a reconstruction done and measurements are required for further analysis. Surely not in a single car no injury, single vehicle crash involving a road sign.

[Gus] “Does the squad car have a "black box"? Will it reveal speed and any turning movements? Brake application? Impact? What does a "black box" in a squad car record?”

I think I more than adequately covered that point. Idiotic at best to retrieve the box and download the data that would reveal nothing that contributes to this investigation.

[Gus]“Did the driver activate the emergency lights immediately after impact? If so, any in-car video camera might have saved the previous 30-60 seconds of the car's movement.”

Yea sure. That’s the first thing I’m going to do after my oh Sh*t moment. I’m going to activate lights before I check to make sure I’m ok, gather my senses after the shock, radio in that I was involved, look at the damage......no I'm going to flip on the lights sitting in the ditch off the road like an idiot. BTW once again you don’t understand the dash cams or how they function. Watching too much CSI.

[Gus] “The combination of point/time-of-impact, in-car video, black box and then Department radio traffic or cell phone usage ought to tell the whole story.”

Are we setting a new precedent here Gus? Are we going to subpoena every driver’s record of cell use on every vehicle crash? Really? Or is it just on those we hate and desire to discredit?

Of course we have Maverik50 with his astute thoughts saying “The deputies sure the hell aren't doing anything else. Maybe Notawannabee is wealthy and doesn't give a crap how his tax dollars are being spent... I DO! Less than a mile away there's a road with speeders EVERY DAY.”

So deputies are just aimlessly driving around with nothing to do? Why don’t you go to one of the online radio sites and listen to the county radio. Most is done via the in car computer but you’ll still hear them chasing from call to call and often NOT being able to muster a car to respond because there are none available. Typically the city of Crystal Lake has as many squads covering the city as the county has covering the entire unincorporated area. Easily three times the population of Crystal Lake. But according to Maverick they have nothing else to do.

Why do I read this stuff? Nothing changed. Still a bunch of political hypocrites spouting a boat load of hyperbolic nonsense. I find it amusing.

Gus said...

Notawannabee thinks it is "Idiotic at best to retrieve the box and download the data..." He thinks the black box would "reveal nothing that contributes to this investigation." Are these the words of a person prone to cover-up, rather than of transparency?

You never know, of course, until you look at the data.

Then he continues, questioning activation of emergency lights at the scene of a wreck on an unlighted section of rural roadway.

"...no I'm going to flip on the lights sitting in the ditch off the road like an idiot."

The previous 60 seconds of dashcam recording would be very helpful in identifying contributing factors to the wreck.

"Are we setting a new precedent here Gus? Are we going to subpoena every driver’s record of cell use on every vehicle crash?"

Are you saying Novak was on the phone when he ran off the road?

The burden of imposed distractions (police radio, in-car computer, electronic switches of many types, planning call response while enroute, cell phone communications with supervisors and other officers and more) on a police officer/driver can be almost overwhelming. They are expected to multi-task, whereas other drivers are urged not to.

Maverick50 said...

Notawannabee must be politic! He quotes my post but never answers a thing... He does point the finger and tries to change the flow of the discussion. Well here's some more questions for you. If you had run over the sign and smashed you car up... would there have been an investigation? Would you have to pay for the sign? Would you have gotten a ticket? Well he should...THE OLD STAND BY "Driving to fast for conditions." YEP he didn't have control of the squad car...DID HE?