Black box' victory

Peter Kerr, the victim of a head-on accident, was left with permanent injuries. Photo / Hawkes Bay Times

The high Court has dismissed a claim that the precedent-setting use of 'black box' data to convict a dangerous driver was unreliable.

Police said the decision had paved the way for widening the use of the technology and are "actively working" to do so.

Allan Hohaia was convicted of dangerous driving causing injury after his high-performance Holden R8 Clubsport crossed the centre line on a sharp corner in Hawke's Bay and ploughed into a car driven by Peter Kerr in January last year.

Hohaia claimed he had not been speeding but data downloaded from the airbag control module (ACM) in his car revealed he was going up to 150km/h at the time of the crash.

After being sentenced to six months' community detention, 350 hours' community work, disqualified from driving, and ordered to pay $17,000 reparation plus costs, Hohaia's lawyer appealed against the conviction, saying ACM evidence was not reliable and should not have been admitted.

Catherine Clarkson argued that the United States expert who downloaded the data could not have been certain of his results because the device was tested as the overseas version of the Holden, a Pontiac G8.

She also said her client's car was fitted with slightly larger tyres than the factory standard so the speedometer reading would have been inaccurate.

In dismissing the appeal at the High Court at Napier, Justice Andrew Dobson said the expert had addressed these concerns in his evidence and his findings stood.

Clarkson also argued there were legal issues around who owned the ACM when it was removed by the police. Dobson dismissed that because the vehicle was in the possession of Turners Car Auctions at the time and police had a warrant.

A senior doctor said Kerr's injuries were the worst he'd seen. He was scalped, had his arm bones pushed into his back, and his leg and pelvis were badly broken.

He was in a coma for more than a week, had to learn to walk again and has lost the use of his right arm.

His wife, Tracy, said the High Court decision had provided them with closure. They had been distressed when Hohaia decided to appeal.

She had not known some cars had black boxes until the court case and hoped the technology would be used more often.

"I think it's a fantastic tool. (The police) suspected from the start that this guy was lying about the speed that he was doing right from the first day. And this proved it."

ACMs have been compared to the black box recorders crucial to plane crash investigators.

They record speed, the percentage of a car's throttle being used, engagement of the brake switch sensor, levels of deceleration and, in some cases, the angles of impact in a crash.

Dr XiaoQi Chen, a University of Canterbury professor of engineering specialising in mechatronics, said there was greater scope for their use in crime investigation.

Drivers could be deterred from speeding if they knew their behaviour was being captured by an electronic sensor.

Police national advisor for crash investigation, Inspector Mark Stables, said deterrence was a plus, but the benefit of the device was it reported "exactly" what happened.