SECTION 8 - SENSING DIAGNOSTIC MODULE SEARCHES

Not surprisingly, impaired drivers can cause collisions.  And those collisions often result in bodily harm or death. Thorough investigations of such collisions are vital, including trying to examine an event data recorder or a sensing diagnostic module ("SDM"). The steps the officers took to search an SDM in a dangerous driving causing death case (where all three occupants of the vehicle had been drinking) included seizing Mr. Fedan's vehicle pursuant to section 489(2) of the Criminal Code, then obtaining a search warrant for the forensic examination of the interior of the vehicle.  The evidence was ruled admissible at trial and that ruling was confirmed on appeal:

In the context of this case and the totality of the circumstances, I find Mr. Fedan did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the SDM and its data. His territorial privacy interest in the device was extinguished by the lawful seizure of the vehicle and he had no informational privacy interest in the SDM data as it contained no personal information linking him to the operation of the vehicle at the material time. Accordingly, I find no error in the judge’s finding that his s. 8 Charter right was not violated and in the admission of this evidence in the trial proper. R. v. Fedan, 2016 BCCA 26