[time-nuts] sub-minute time-precision in court-case

Poul-Henning Kamp phk at phk.freebsd.dk
Tue Sep 3 10:07:13 EDT 2013


It is very rare to see courts deal with time precisions less
than minutes, but it seems to have happened in this case:

(from: www.judiciary.state.nj.us/opinions/a1128-12.pdf)

	Best stopped his truck, saw the severity of the injuries,
	and called 911. The time of the 911 call was 17:49:15, that
	is, fifteen seconds after 5:49 p.m.
	[...]

	texts [...] exchanged while Best was driving:
	Sent      Sender  Received Recipient
	------------------------------------
	[...]
	5:47:49   Best    5:47:56  Colonna
	5:48:14   Colonna 5:48:23  Best
	5:48:58   Best    5:49:07  Colonna
	(5:49:15 911 Call)

	This sequence indicates the precise time of the accident -
	within seconds of 5:48:58. Seventeen seconds elapsed from
	Best's sending a text to Colonna and the time of the 911
	call after the accident. Those seconds had to include Best's
	stopping his vehicle, observing the injuries to the Kuberts,
	and dialing 911. It appears, therefore, that Best collided
	with the Kuberts' motorcycle immediately after sending a
	text at 5:48:58.

Nowhere does the opinion mention if the timestamps were taken on
the same clock or if the two clocks were synchronized.

Best was a volunteer fireman, but I still find the seventeen
seconds slightly incredible.

The seventeen seconds are somewhat material to the ruling, but
not a decisive factor.

-- 
Poul-Henning Kamp       | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
phk at FreeBSD.ORG         | TCP/IP since RFC 956
FreeBSD committer       | BSD since 4.3-tahoe
Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.


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