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From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
Montreal — The airbag in Éric Gauthier's car was designed to save his life. But it could put the 26-year-old behind bars.
Unbeknownst to Mr. Gauthier, the airbag in his Chevrolet Sunfire had a data recorder that proved he was driving at three times the 50-kilometre speed limit on a Montreal street when he hit another car, killing the driver.
Mr. Gauthier was convicted on two counts of dangerous driving. His trial marked the first time a Canadian judge had to rule on the admissibility of such data as court evidence, prosecutor Jeannot Décarie said.
Yesterday, at his presentence hearing, the Crown asked for a three-year sentence.
The palm-sized device that convicted Mr. Gauthier is now standard on most new car models. Manufacturers designed them as protection in case they are sued for airbag malfunctions.
A Montreal police investigator seized the recorder and odometer of Mr. Gauthier's car a week after the April 19, 2001, accident because he had trouble using traditional methods to establish the car's speed at the time of the impact.
But Mr. Gauthier's defence argued that using the data in the recorder was a violation of his privacy. Quebec Court Judge Louise Bourdeau ruled that any infringement was minimal and Mr. Gauthier was convicted last October.
Known in the industry as EDRs — event data recorders — the black boxes have grown increasingly sophisticated and common. General Motors, for example, has put them in its new models since 1999 and Ford since 2000.
Because they are beginning to be used as a prosecution tool, the recorders have triggered a growing legal debate in the United States. Critics cite privacy concerns and say that the machines constitute an unfair form of self-incrimination.
In California, a new law requires that owner's manuals for vehicles made after June, 2004, notify the drivers of what the modules are able to record. Meanwhile, a U.S. federal regulator, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, is considering making EDRs mandatory in all new vehicles.
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