Dublin, Nov 09: International Business Machines Corp is to pioneer a ‘crash data’ recording network in Ireland aimed at reducing the country’s high road death toll and spiralling insurance costs, the company said in a statement. IBM said it had teamed up with private US technology firm Safety Intelligence Systems Corp (SIS) to provide the network, which uses in-vehicle data recorders similar to ‘black box’ flight recorders in the aerospace industry.

“The network will improve road safety, speed emergency response times, fight fraud and reduce the cost of automobile insurance,” IBM, one of the world’s leading computer companies, said.

The gadgets, which immediately notify emergency services when road crashes occur and provide accurate and objective information about the causes of the crashes themselves, will be available for installation in vehicles in Ireland by mid-2004.
The data recorders are expected to go on sale for around $300 each, a spokesman for IBM in Dublin said. IBM and SIS are introducing the system into Ireland in response to calls from the Irish government, which is grappling with one of the worst per capita road death rates in Europe and increasing public anger at soaring insurance costs. Bureau Report