The Accuracy of Crash Data from Ford Restraint Control Modules Interpreted with Revised Vetronix Software

The Vetronix Crash Data Retrieval (CDR) system can download information recorded by the restraint control module (RCM) of newer Ford vehicles. In an earlier study, a 2003 Ford Crown Victoria and a 2003 Ford Windstar were exposed to 84 staged collisions with speed changes up to 13.5 km/h. After each test, crash data was downloaded from the RCM using version 2.1 of the Vetronix CDR software. In this study, the crash data was re-analyzed using the current version 2.4 of the software. Unlike version 2.1, version 2.4 did not report duplicate data points. Version 2.4 reported more accurate speed changes for the Windstar (average underestimate of 0.23 km/h) RCM but less accurate speed changes for the Crown Victoria (average underestimate of 0.73 km/h).