By Nick Sellers | Staff Writer

MADISON – Personnel at the Madison Police Department’s traffic unit now have funding in place for a crash data receiver, a $10,000 piece of equipment that Chief Larry Muncey said will expedite auto-accident investigations within the city moving forward.

Receiving $5,000 in re-appropriations from State Rep. Mike Ball (R–Madison) and an identical amount from Madison County Commission Chairman Dale Strong, Muncey accepted the donations at the May 26 City Council meeting for the receiver.

Before, Muncey explained, the department had to contact the Alabama State Troopers for the piece of equipment – “think of it as one laptop,” Muncey said – which brought another entity to investigations and prolonged investigations.

Now that the department has the mobile data receiver, the piece of equipment can be brought to a crash scene and “hooked up” to vehicles involved in a crash and receive data from the incident, including the speeds of the cars involved in the accidents.

“They’re going to be able to investigate quicker and give you the facts quicker,” Muncey said.

Most newer model cars, Muncey explained, have components that allow the crash data receiver to glean crucial information following crashes.

“When you have crashes where somone’s seriously injured or even killed, you won’t otherwise get that information,” Muncey said.

Rep. Ball is a former Alabama State Trooper, and Strong worked as a 911 dispatcher and an EMT with HEMSI before his political career.