Why everyone needs a simple dash camera

[dpinvidic]

My wife recently got in a fender bender, and it was the other drivers fault.
No injuries, so the police would not take an accident report. They actually had not shown up by the time we were done exchanging info, so I called and cancelled.

We were VERY LUCKY in that the other driver filed a claim with his insurance the next day, and he admitted fault.
But here is what can easily happen, and often times does.

The other driver may never file a claim, or states that it was not his fault.
It now becomes difficult to prove whose fault it was. If you don’t have any witnesses, the other driver can tell any story that he wants.
It is simply his word against yours…in a court, that becomes a tie without evidence.
Taking pictures of the damage AFTER the crash can help if it becomes obvious from the pictures who was at fault (like he rear-ended you)…but in a lot of cases, not too helpful.

Having a dash cam, at the bare minimum shows exactly where your vehicle was when the impact occurs. Even better, is if his car is also on the video.
Now you have evidence of what actually happened…he can’t make stuff up.

You don’t need a dash cam with GPS, speed info could actually hurt you if you were over the speed limit…but still completely their fault.
You don’t need license numbers in the video. Pictures taken with your cell phone in addition to the video makes a complete package.

You can certainly spend several hundred bucks on a dash camera with extra features if you like, but a $50 G1WH camera will get the job done.
Something that turns on & off with the ignition, and has a built-in energy source to allow the camera to save the file if the car battery is destroyed.

So the take away here is get a dash cam…..

Regards,

Dan

[firedoc]

" You don’t need a dash cam with GPS, speed info could actually hurt you if you were over the speed limit…but still completely their fault."

It would not be completely their fault if you were over the speed limit!

[mrt_1111]

Has anybody actually used a dashcam to prove who was at fault?

[fuzzie101]

I've never had someone present one to me as evidence but if they did it would surely be helpful if there were no independent witnesses. Colour of the traffic lights or who had the right of way at a four way stop are two that come to mind.


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[barmcd]

A dash cam does seem like a good idea--I've seen a lot of dash cam or helmet video that captured relevant behavior in an accident. From what I've seen, most don't end up in court because once the party in the wrong knows there's video, they drop the pretense of being the injured party.

[Podivin]

From years of driving a dump truck I know that many drivers will rush to get in front of the 'big slow thing', and then slam on their brakes because they're turning in 1/2 block.
I never actually hit any one, but had some mighty close calls.
I'll be putting a dash cam in the RV, and hope that I never have cause to actually use in the case of an accident.
A 'secondary' use of the cam is just to document where you've been. We drive through some pretty places, it might be nice to save some footage from some of those drives.

[falconman]

What do you do with the dash cam footage if the accident is your fault? ;p

[PJStough]

Originally Posted by falconman

What do you do with the dash cam footage if the accident is your fault?

What dashcam???

[wildtoad]

I'm sure the feds will require them in the coming years on all cars and trucks with the last "N" minutes recorded. All cars now must have backup cameras so the added expense will be negligible. Add all this new video data to the information about speed, braking, seat belt usage that can be captured.

[TurtleKent]

Having a dash cam YOU control the evidence, until you decide to voluntarily surrender it to insurance or police.

[PJStough]

Originally Posted by TurtleKent

Having a dash cam YOU control the evidence, until you decide to voluntarily surrender it to insurance or police.

I would think that your dashcam could be subpoenaed
by a court.

[Podivin]

Sorry officer, it was destroyed in the accident...

[PJStough]

Originally Posted by Podivin

Sorry officer, it was destroyed in the accident...

Sounds good, but I dont think that answer would fly with a cop, and certainly not with a court, unless you would be willing to risk perjury.

[TexasTom]

Steve Lehto did a nice piece on dash cam laws.

https://soundcloud.com/stevelehto/th...ash-cams-ep-50

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM4JuH9EV8k