2011 Dodge Avenger Owner Manual - Page 74

72 THINGS TO KNOW BEFORE STARTING YOUR VEHICLE • Whether or not the driver and passenger safety belts In addition to the vehicle manufacturer, other parties, such as law enforcement, that have the special equipwere buckled/fastened; ment, can read the information if they have access to the • How far (if at all) the driver was depressing the vehicle or the EDR. accelerator and/or brake pedal; and, Child Restraints • How fast the vehicle was traveling. Everyone in your vehicle needs to be buckled up all the These data can help provide a better understanding of time, including babies and children. Every state in the the circumstances in which crashes and injuries occur. United States and all Canadian provinces require that small children ride in proper restraint systems. This is the NOTE: EDR data are recorded by your vehicle only if a law, and you can be prosecuted for ignoring it. non-trivial crash situation occurs; no data are recorded by the EDR under normal driving conditions and no per- Children 12 years or younger should ride properly sonal data (e.g., name, gender, age, and crash location) buckled up in a rear seat, if available. According to crash are recorded. However, other parties, such as law en- statistics, children are safer when properly restrained in forcement, could combine the EDR data with the type of the rear seats, rather than in the front. personally identifying data routinely acquired during a crash investigation. To read data recorded by an EDR, special equipment is required, and access to the vehicle or the EDR is needed.