Opinion ID: 2305574
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Admissibility of the Tachograph

Text: The plaintiff contends that the trial justice erred by excluding the actual speed recording from the tachograph. A tachograph is a recording device located in many commercial trucks that charts the movement and speed of the vehicle. See Karen Smith Cooney, Comment, The Evidentiary Use of Tachograph Charts in Civil Litigation, 92 Dick. L.Rev. 483, 483 (1988). In the legal context, tachograph recordings are commonly used to prove the speed at which a vehicle was traveling at the time of an accident. See id. UPS required the installation and operation of a tachograph in each of its vehicles. Thus Hogan's truck was equipped with the device on the day of the accident. After the accident, UPS dispatch supervisor James Kershaw (Kershaw) drove the truck to the East Providence police station. While at the station, Kershaw removed the tachograph disk (containing all relevant recordings) and placed it in his pocket. The tachograph revealed that Hogan was driving approximately thirty-two miles per hour at the time of the accident. However, before the accident, UPS allegedly found that the tachograph gear apparatus was defective. At the second trial, Kershaw testified that a part had been ordered to correct the problem. It was UPS's position that because of the defective gear, the tachograph could not have accurately recorded the truck's speed on the day of the accident. Thus UPS challenged the admissibility of the tachograph by filing a motion in limine. The parties agreed that any testimony about the patterns of acceleration and deceleration recorded by the tachograph were admissible. The trial justice reserved ruling on the admissibility of the actual speed of the truck as recorded by the tachograph until such evidence was proffered in the context of the trial. The trial justice's opinion was that to prove that the missing gear was essential to the accuracy determination, and the foundation, plaintiff may need to provide expert testimony to supporther theory. The plaintiff argued that because the original defective gear was missing she could not possibly establish the accuracy of the speed recording. It is well established that `the admissibility of evidence is within the sound discretion of the trial justice, and this Court will not interfere with the trial justice's decision unless a clear abuse of that discretion is apparent.' ADP Marshall, Inc. v. Brown University, 784 A.2d 309, 314 (R.I.2001) (quoting Bourdon's, Inc. v. Ecin Industries, Inc., 704 A.2d 747, 758 (R.I.1997)). Furthermore, `this standard is applicable to a trial justice's determinations with respect to both the relevancy of proffered evidence and the adequacy of the foundation laid for its admission.' Id. (quoting Bourdon's, Inc., 704 A.2d at 758). In an attempt to have the trial justice reconsider the tachograph speed evidence, plaintiff's attorney indicated to the court that he intended to elicit the information from Kershaw. At that time, the trial justice ruled that the speed recording from the tachograph was inadmissible for lack of adequate foundation and accompanying expert testimony to ensure the accuracy of the recording. In doing so, the trial justice fairly noted that all the evidence pointed toward the inaccuracy of the tachograph recording. Further, plaintiff did not produce an expert to testify in support of her theory that the missing gear in question would be necessary to test the accuracy of the tachograph. Lastly, the trial justice noted that although the trial justice in the first trial had indeed admitted such evidence, she was entitled to exercise her own independent discretion in the second trial. [4] The plaintiff was still entitled to discuss the acceleration pattern of the truck, including the clear absence of deceleration, which arguably, was even more important to her case. We agree. In this case, there is no evidence that the trial justice abused her discretion by finding that Kershaw could not render a technical opinion absent qualification as an expert and that plaintiff had failed to lay an adequate foundation. A technical opinion about the operation of the tachograph and the impact of any alleged defect may indeed have been better introduced by an expert pursuant to Rule 702 of the Rhode Island Rules of Evidence. See ADP Marshall, Inc., 784 A.2d at 315; see also 92 Dick L. Rev. at 486 (discussing predominant view that in order to establish foundation for tachograph evidence, accuracy must be established). Further, the jury heard the most compelling information revealed by the tachograph  that Hogan had failed to decelerate upon seeing Michael and his friends, and in fact, had accelerated continuously from the previous traffic signal. Finally, speed may not have been a factor in this accident because it was undisputed that Michael was struck by the rear wheels of the truck and that after the accident he was lying approximately fifty-three feet from the rear of the trailer. Accordingly, we find no error in the exclusion of the tachograph speed recording.