Vehicle's 'black box' reveals car reached 102mph on Bayshore before crash

TAMPA (FOX 13) - According to a newly released report, the 2018 Ford Mustang that police say hit and killed a mother and her young child on Bayshore Boulevard was doing "102 miles an hour before the driver began a hard braking, right before the crash."

That means Cameron Herrin, with his brother in the passenger seat, would have covered the length of a football field in two seconds.

The triple-digit speeding data comes from his 2018 Mustang's event data recorder, sometimes known as the black box, just like ones in airplanes.

Odds are, your car has one too, especially if it was made in the last four or five years.

“They record what’s going on in the vehicle, such as acceleration, deceleration, braking, speed, whether or not you’re wearing your seatbelt, pretty much anything that is electronically controlled is being captured as well,” explained AAA spokesperson Matt Nasworthy.

These devices can give investigators access to information about what happened before, during, and after a crash.

Nasworthy says the information is always being recorded, raising concerns about information privacy. He says the owner of a vehicle -- or anyone able to get a court order -- has the right to the information being recorded by their vehicle,  

In the case of the crash on Bayshore, police say the vehicle's data was pulled following a judge-approved search warrant.

Officials warn, trying to disable the device is difficult, if not impossible and, in many cases, it could help you in the case of an accident. 

“As a vehicle owner, if your vehicle has a black box and you're being accused of doing something you weren't doing, you can get access to that information to support your case,” Nasworthy added.