I tead that report too and it came from the AIS data which clearly shows that at 16:30 UTC the Containership altered course to starboard. What is not clear is the exact time of the collision. Untill that is known it’s impossible to tell if the change in course was done in attempt to avoid collision or if the containership took no action and the course change was a result of the collision.
So, you’re correct, the VDR will give us the answer.
That said… the US Navy has realtime monitoring systems that are much more advanced than VDR… so I am 99.9% confident they already know the answer.