The Bowmonk Black Box Incident Data Recorder (IDR) has been evaluated by the UK Home Office (VIDG) against the Automotive and Equipment Section Conformance Specification 5 and given a Class 1 pass for all requirements pertaining to that specification.

The IDR continually monitors a vehicle and is programmed to automatically record data as soon as the vehicle engine is started. It can even monitor whilst the vehicle is parked and recognise a collision in the event of the vehicle being struck whilst stationary. It will then date and time stamp when the collision occurred and what direction that impact came from.

	In normal recording mode the IDR stores acquired data on a minute by minute basis, thus providing a readily accessible data string for average speed - distance - time, which can be readily used by fleet managers to compare vehicle / driver performance. The Bowmonk IDR has an automatic incident recognition mode, which detects when the vehicle has been involved in a collision or other extra-ordinary event. The threshold for this automatic detection can be adjusted or tailored to fit a customer's specific requirements.

These two levels of data analysis are available through one software package, which is the TachoME software. This software has been developed to provide detailed answers to both fleet engineers and Accident Investigators and Reconstructionists. It has been configured in such a way that it removes the need for the viewer to interpret what the data means and to provide clear and concise information, which is not interpretation or conjecture. This will provide a clearer presentation, which is more likely to be accepted by Lawyers and the Courts, thereby reducing time and hence costs. The need for the usual battle of experts is prevented leaving all to benefit from reduced costs and faster fairer justice.

ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION / RECONSTRUCTION

The unit can be programmed to automatically store the higher level of data required for Accident Investigation. The trigger threshold is set to a deceleration value, which indicates an impact or other incident. Once the unit recognises that an incident has occurred, it stores all data from 45 seconds prior to the incident, until the vehicle comes to rest, (or for 20 seconds after the incident), whichever is the longer.