Dashcam S&F and do they get stolen?

[Aurial]

sometimes the cause of an accident is not all cut and dryed.

i'd hate to have my dashcam seized,  then be wrongly accused of contributing to the accident

could end up being very costly, not to mention the hasil involved

 

why take the chance

I think we're starting to get a little hysterical about all this. Most car accidents are damage only, and police have absolutely no interest short of making sure everyone is insured and licensed, because these are down to the insurance companies to investigate, not the police.

 

Of the accidents that result in injury, again, most are minor injuries and the situation is pretty much the same as in the damage only accident.

 

The only time police would be investigating is if serious life changing or life threatening injury has occurred. In these situations they will secure evidence from CCTV, be it nearby buses, shops, council cameras, etc. They will also call an accident investigator to the scene who will measure the whole scene by laser, marks on the road recorded, braking test conducted in the conditions you were driving in, and then your car will be seized and picked apart. Believe me they WILL know exactly what you've done. Not having a dash cam is not going to save you if you have driven like a tool and killed someone.

 

Conversely, if you're pulled over for speeding they are not going to seize your dash cam or your memory card because the cost of processing the footage is too great. It's not the case that the officer can just take it back to the station, plug it into his computer and get your footage. S/He will have to send it away to a unit that does this, who will download, convert it to an appropriate format for their use and burn multiple copies. Those units have massive backlogs of work from all the hundreds of more important crimes that require CCTV evidence, and the whole of this is cost prohibitive for a simple case of speeding.

 

I've had two mates who in the last two months have had accidents. One was on a pedal cycle when a driver who was too close behind him on a round about hit his back wheel and knocked him off. He wasn't badly hurt but there was damage to his very expensive bike. The driver admitted full liability at the scene, and was very upset about it. Once she gets home however, and presumably having had advice from her husband, she changes her story that she didn't even touch his wheel and he must've fallen off.

 

The second was another friend who was on his motorcycle when a supermarket delivery van pulled out of a side street and knocked him off. The van driver has subsequently told his insurance company that my friend was riding on the wrong side of the road, and so now as he was only third party famine & flood he has lost his bike.

 

Both of these scenarios would've had a very different outcome if they had both had cameras, as many cyclists and motorcyclists do these days.

 

The truth is that these days you just can't count on anyone to be honest and hold their hands up when they've done wrong. They'll happily blame you if they think it can get them off the hook. You also can't count on anyone to be a witness for you either, as we live it times where people will just drive/walk on by.

 

I for one am glad I have my camera for peace of mind it gives me, and I have absolutely zero concerns that it will be used against me.