To work out events of an accident an EDR (Event Data Recorder) or Black Box is used. To capture accident event data, the EDR records several necessary data points leading up to the accident.

The EDR takes data from key vehicle sensors and records it to be played back by the emergency services, investigators and insurers. Data can include acceleration change, location data, vehicle speed, throttle percentage, braking data, engine ignition data, airbag activation and ADAS recordings. The box can be physically retrieved after an incident by recovery teams or by the insurer and analysed. It can also be sent just as an incident occurs over the air using mobile networks to insurers, fleet management companies and emergency services.

This data is vital for emergency services to understand what happened. This includes the location of the incident and any other factors such as the speed of the crash. Knowing this data allows support teams to be distributed immediately to attend to the crash. 

Insurers can install a system to monitor driving behaviour and impose restrictions. Preventing nighttime driving to allow cheaper premiums, reward safer driving and collect driving habits from their fleet of insured vehicles.

It benefits insurers further as accident event data is used to see which party was at fault and get to the root cause quickly. Authorities can use the accident event data in courts and legal systems as evidence for prosecution.

Fleet management can work out what happened in an incident to prevent it from happening in the future. With drivers able to learn from their mistakes and improve their driving safety.