Florida Car Accident

Northwest 54th Street In Miami Was Crowded And Many People Saw The Three-Car Collision That Killed Detective

Northwest 54th Street in Miami was crowded at 4:30 p.m. on Feb. 7, 1997, and many people saw the three-car collision that killed Detective Robert Vargas. But none of them could help Miami police determine why he died.
The 29-year-old detective, responding in his unmarked car to a robbery call, had what looked to investigators like a relatively minor collision with a Chevy Blazer entering the intersection from his right. His year-old Chevy Lumina skidded across the double yellow line into oncoming traffic and was struck head-on by a Mercury Marquis. Calculating the force of the crash from the skid marks and wreckage, investigators determined that Vargas' air bag could have saved his
life.Some head injuries only become evident hours after the accident, said Dr. Jeffrey Augenstein, a professor of surgery at the University of Miami who has been working with GM to develop the recorders. But the recorders could alert doctors to watch for brain swelling or other symptoms.The recorder is "an invaluable tool," said James Stratton, a senior
crash investigator at the William Lehman Injury Research Center at the University of Miami School of Medicine, who helped reconstruct the crash that killed Vargas.

The recorder is an almost accidental outgrowth of the computerization
of cars. Air bags already come with computers that measure the "crash pulse," or change in velocity, and calculate whether and when to deploy the bag. Many cars also have computers that keep track of engine speed, car speed and the like. GM's innovation involved adding an inexpensive system that records all this data on a microchip if the car
is bumped hard enough, or almost hard enough, to deploy the air bag.

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