Thanks to advances in information technology, the automotive collision repair and insurance claims industries are benefiting from scientific methodology and the laws of physics. Both industries are gathering data via automobile event data recorders (edrs), also known as black boxes, to help insurance companies and repair facilities use the physics of an accident to get a startlingly accurate portrait of what really happens when cars collide.

As a result, the claim settlement and repair processes are substantially more accurate. False claims can be more easily debunked. Liability can be more accurately determined. The upside of examining the physics of an accident, however, reaches further than a single claim.

One company collecting edr data is San Antonio, Texas-based Injury Sciences LLC.

"When aggregated over time, the data will tell us which cars performed well and which ones did not. It will tell us which cars cost more to repair under the same accident circumstances than others," said Scott Palmer, Injury Sciences¹ president and CEO. "This represents an unprecedented opportunity for the insurance industry to advance the sophistication of its underwriting and claims settlement processes. It also benefits the repair industry by identifying specific solutions relating to the most frequent collision areas."

Designed to paint an objective picture of accidents for claims adjusters, edrs are among the latest technologies to provide information surrounding an accident. On June 10, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposed standard requirements for edrs that manufacturers choose to install into light vehicles. According to Palmer, edrs are standard on 20 percent of vehicles on the road today: that number is growing rapidly.

These devices record variables such as vehicle and engine speed, throttle position and brake status. The data then helps definitively answer whether a driver was speeding or whether the brakes were applied at the appropriate time. The data can also illustrate the sequence of collisions and severity of impact in a multi-car accident. Each of these items contributes to helping a claims adjustor determine liability. As the number of edrs increases, it could change the emphasis traditionally placed on eyewitness accounts to piece together an accident.

"For an injury to occur," Palmer explains, "one or more of the following must happen: compression, tension or shear. Through the laws of physics, you can determine if a passenger was exposed to one or more of these forces. If one of these forces comes into play, then the next question is, 'was it at a level that exceeded human tolerance?' Only if it exceeds human tolerance does an injury occur."

This breakthrough could benefit the insurance industry. Studies conducted by the Insurance Research Council, the RAND Corporation and others suggest that almost one-third of injury claims submitted are fraudulent; accidents that never happened or where the impact was exaggerated.

"There is a science behind every accident," said Palmer. "The laws of physics apply to all bodies. Unless it is a fraudulent claim, the facts of an accident will always conform to the laws of physics."

By reducing bogus claims, the new information will help the industry by reducing inefficiencies and eliminating costs. These savings are being passed on to consumers and legitimate claimants.

"[With edr technology] a claims adjustor has objective facts about an accident," explains Palmer. "They can more consistently and accurately determine what actually happened. The whole theory is to find the right answer and obtain it easily."

Injury Sciences has built a repository of accident data from extensive edr reports, as well as data from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), Consumer Reports and other resources. The company has harnessed this information to create what Palmer describes as a "desktop forensic solution" that takes the information found in a claim file and walks an adjustor through forensic analysis, essentially applying the laws of physics to determine what happened in an accident.

The database isn¹t building itself, however. The data needs to be transferred from a vehicle¹s black box into the database. According to Palmer, the black box is like a peripheral device for a laptop.

"In effect, this gives repairers a great opportunity to further solidify their position as trusted partners for insurance companies," Palmer notes. "A repair facility is the logical point to extract the data for insurance companies. In this way, repairers are able to offer yet another vital service to insurers."

Even in accidents where there is no black box, scientific crash data helps put the pieces together. "(Injury Sciences has) developed and patented an approach where we can determine the severity of the collision based on the profile of that repair estimate. Essentially, we¹re using reverse analysis," said Palmer.

Palmer admits that retrieving the data directly from a black box gives it a higher degree of fidelity. With an accurately written repair estimate, however, the reverse analysis process can help insurers determine the severity of the collision and the impact on the vehicle¹s occupants. Palmer says reverse analysis can be consistently applied to about a third of a carrier¹s injury claims.

The use of science and new innovations continues to make the claim settlement and repair processes more efficient and accurate, and that¹s just what our businesses and consumers want to hear.

Injury Sciences is the leader in engineering-based expert systems for claims. The company¹s flagship product, WrExpert, was initially released in October 1998. It is an Internet-based expert system that scientifically identifies fraudulent and exaggerated injury claims and provides engineering-based diagnostics of negligence/liability factors.

Jim Dickens is senior vice president of product management and marketing at CCC Information Services Inc.

Innovation through information.

Many advances in the claim settlement process are made possible by volumes of human test data accumulated over the decades, showing how the body responds to certain events. The US military led the way in the 1940s and 50s, conducting research to explore what the human body could withstand when devising launch and landing methods on aircraft carriers.

US Air Force Col. John Paul Stapp - founder of the Stapp Car Crash Conferences and Time magazine¹s ³fastest man on earth² in 1952 - took it a step further. He conducted a series of experiments in pursuit of the body¹s limitations, most notably strapping himself to a rocket sled. Racing face-first at nearly 632 miles per hour in the Mojave Desert, Col. Stapp subjected himself to 42 times the force of gravity in order to determine that tolerance.

In 1955, Col. Stapp invited universities, automakers, research laboratories, traffic and safety councils and the military to witness a series of automobile crash tests he had arranged. This meeting spurred interest in automobile safety and inspired innovative new measures, including: dashboards manufactured with energy absorbing padding; safety locks to prevent doors from flying open in a crash; removable rear window shelves, and; improved bumper designs. More importantly, these tests were the first to prove the effectiveness of securely fastened seat belts.

The group has continued - in one form or another - to gather annually for the last 48 years at the Stapp Car Crash Conference. In that time, the automotive industry has used the findings from scientific crash tests to produce safety innovations that include the three-point restraint harness and the air bag.

The industry has come a long way since Col. Stapp¹s days, but the ultimate objective of safety remains. Visit www.stapp.org for more information on the Stapp Car Crash Conference.