A vote for dashboard cameras

[Mike Lewis]

Yesterday when stopped at a traffic light, I looked in my rear-view mirror and saw a car approaching that didn't seem to have a driver. Then I saw that it had a driver-- he was bent down to his right, rummaging around in the passenger seat or glovebox or something. He straightened up just in time for the collision.

No one was hurt, and my trailer hitch took the impact. I'll have to have it inspected before I tow my trailer. But the incident got me thinking about dashboard cameras again. In this situation a camera wouldn't make a difference legally, but there are plenty of situations where it could provide valuable evidence and clear the driver of wrongdoing.

Now if I can find one that doesn't record audio, so I won't have a recording of my cussfits as I drive.

 

[LosAngeles]

Yesterday when stopped at a traffic light, I looked in my rear-view mirror and saw a car approaching that didn't seem to have a driver. Then I saw that it had a driver-- he was bent down to his right, rummaging around in the passenger seat or glovebox or something. He straightened up just in time for the collision.

No one was hurt, and my trailer hitch took the impact. I'll have to have it inspected before I tow my trailer. But the incident got me thinking about dashboard cameras again. In this situation a camera wouldn't make a difference legally, but there are plenty of situations where it could provide valuable evidence and clear the driver of wrongdoing.

Now if I can find one that doesn't record audio, so I won't have a recording of my cussfits as I drive.

many dash cams have a menu setting to not record audio.

sorry for your incident.

 

[Steven M]

Sorry for your being involved in a traffic crash, there are no traffic accidents as there is always a reason for there being one. Glad that your feeling okay. Rear ended this spring by someone with $#!t insurance, took four months to get the car fixed, so I hope yours goes smoothly.

 

[gocamp-ESC]

I use this app on an old ipod touch. You can record no audio.
OsmAnd DVR - Car Video Recorder and Maps

 

[Mike Lewis]

many dash cams have a menu setting to not record audio.

sorry for your incident.

Thanks. My only experience with dashcams is with a combo GPS / dashcam made by Magellan. There was no way to turn off its microphone and I was rather alarmed at what it recorded. So I put the thing away and went back to my Garmin for the GPS.

It occurred to me that I could have a profitable YouTube channel "Mike's Driving" consisting only of my dashcam video plus expletive-laden commentary. There might be a market for that.

 

[Brian B-P]

Sorry for your being involved in a traffic crash, there are no traffic accidents as there is always a reason for there being one.

Arrrrgh Why did the safety people do this to us?

"Accident" does not mean an event without a cause; it means an unintended event. The driver who rear-ended Mike presumably did not intend to hit him, so it was an accident. That doesn't change responsibility: the driver who was not paying attention was negligent and entirely at fault for the accidental collision.

There are lots of accidents of many kinds. Most collisions are accidental: drivers don't go around ramming other cars deliberately so they are accidents; however, they also all have causes and almost all could be prevented... often by just paying attention! The point of a dashcam is to provide evidence of the cause, so responsibility can be placed more accurately. Of course, that might sometimes mean deleting the dashcam recording ASAP... :whistling:

The intent of the safety people's nonsensical insistence that "there are no accidents" is presumably to instill a sense of responsibility, rather than letting people say "it was just an accident" as if that is an excuse, but ignoring the meaning of words doesn't achieve that - to me, it just makes them lose credibility.

 

[rbryan4]

Sorry this happened Mike. Unfortunately, they still let idiots drive a car anywhere in North America.

 

[Loren & Cathy]

I lost about 12 ft of my cedar privacy fence last week due to a driver not paying attention, or what ever. The vehicle was still operational and they took off but not before I got a license number. Saw in the police report that they got 7 citations for that. Loren

 

[Steven M]

Arrrrgh Why did the safety people do this to us?

"Accident" does not mean an event without a cause; it means an unintended event. The driver who rear-ended Mike presumably did not intend to hit him, so it was an accident. That doesn't change responsibility: the driver who was not paying attention was negligent and entirely at fault for the accidental collision.

There are lots of accidents of many kinds. Most collisions are accidental: drivers don't go around ramming other cars deliberately so they are accidents; however, they also all have causes and almost all could be prevented... often by just paying attention! The point of a dashcam is to provide evidence of the cause, so responsibility can be placed more accurately. Of course, that might sometimes mean deleting the dashcam recording ASAP... :whistling:

The intent of the safety people's nonsensical insistence that "there are no accidents" is presumably to instill a sense of responsibility, rather than letting people say "it was just an accident" as if that is an excuse, but ignoring the meaning of words doesn't achieve that - to me, it just makes them lose credibility.

A traffic CRASH report is taken and investigated to make roads and vehicles safer. I spent 10 years investigating major accidents, those with death and serious personal injury. In the unit we had a saying that no one wakes up and says I'm going to die in a traffic accident of I will be involved in a traffic accident. Brit responsibility sometimes needs to be assigned, a reason must be found and hopefully corrections can be made to avoid the accident from happening again. Brian you are correct that the semantics count in this case I can't help but call it what it is, a crash.

Whether the cause was simply speed to fast for conditions, following to close or distracted driving there is a cause, there might be no intention but there is a cause for the crash. Whoops I didn't mean it can apply to games and fun times or spilling coffee, but should never be applied to someone behind the wheel of a couple of tons of steel moving at 30 MPH or faster. I fear we shall simply have to agree to disagree .

And I still believe that dashcams can be important tools in covering ones butt. There are simply many tools to finding a cause for a crash, direct video NEVER hurts. ;D

 

[MyronL]

Mike I have great sympathy for you. Personally, if it happened to me it would surely generate much steam from my ears. What can you do but adjust, take names, tell yourself, hey, if Army can beat Navy, anything can happen.

 

[Brian B-P]

A traffic CRASH report is taken and investigated to make roads and vehicles safer.

... Brian you are correct that the semantics count in this case I can't help but call it what it is, a crash.

Right - "crash" and "collision" are synonyms in this context. It just means things running into each other - which are not supposed to - with resulting damage. No disagreement there!