Dutch insurers call for 'black box' in every car

Dutch insurers want a 'black box' installed in each car. According to the Dutch association of insurers VNV, such a event data recorder (EDR) will not only make handling damage claims and finding the guilty party of an accident easier, but will also help prevent insurance fraud and increase traffic safety, NOS reports.

"A data recorder will provide us with a lot of information about road safety, where things go wrong, how things go wrong. We can also use this data to make the Netherlands more traffic safe", the insurers said according to the broadcaster.

The European Commission is currently considering whether an EDR should be mandatory in the European Union.

Many new cars already come with such a recorder installed, and the police already use this information as evidence in the event of serious accidents. An EDR records, for example, how fast a car was going, when it started breaking, and whether the driver was wearing a seatbelt.

"It is not a spy box, an event data recorder only records the last eight seconds every time the car drives, how the car drives and what the accident conditions are. Older information is constantly erased", according to the insurers. The insurers want the police to read the EDR data, not the insurers themselves.