Four Amendment Protects Vehicle Computer Data

A pedestrian had been killed by being hit by an SUV. The driver left the scene in it.  The police got it and wanted to download data from its sensing and diagnostic module. California's appeals court for San Jose held that the download required a warrant or an exception to the warrant requirement, which the police did not have and reversed the trial courts conviction for leaving the scene of an accident after having committed vehicular manslaughter and for personally inflicting great bodily injury on the victim. The defendant's convictions for:

• failure to stop at an accident resulting in death or serious bodily injury,
• driving under the influence of alcohol and causing injury, and
• driving with a blood alcohol level of at least 0.08 and causing injury

were all upheld.