A NEW state-of-the-art piece of equipment could save lives in road accidents.
Humberside Police launched The Cube Project at The BDV Group on Flixborough Industrial Estate.
It uses the latest technology to acquire vital data from vehicles that have been involved in collisions or crime, reading information from the vehicle’s complex internal systems including speed, steering angle, brake application, lighting state and the route taken by the vehicle, within a matter of minutes.
Once downloaded, information regarding the accidents can be sent to trauma teams at hospitals to help in treating injured vehicle occupants – and potentially save lives.
The device can also detect and identify stolen components fitted to a vehicle.
Previously, this information would only be available after many hours of work and through negotiation with the vehicle manufacturer.
This would mean the emergency services were at the crash site or crime scene longer and roads were closed for longer.
Officials said the device works “pretty much” like a black box for a plane except rather than record historic data, it records data from the impact of the crash.
The Cube Project has been trialled by Humberside Police for the past three years.
Senior collision investigation officer and UK project lead at Humberside Police John Rusted said: “It is a bit of a game changer for the police and it can be used in a court of law.
“Now if you want to pretend that you have not done something, you have to prove you have not done this.
“All the investigators in the UK have been invited here to look at the cubes.”
Mr Rusted said the project was broken up into three cubes: the vin (vehicle identification number cube), the crash cube and the crime cube – the latter of which is still in development.
Part of the technology involves using three-dimensional laser maps which the police can use.
