So not long ago one of our customers was driving on the highway minding her own business when the semi truck she was driving beside decided it wanted to be in her lane. And by “driving beside” I mean “overtaking at a sensible speed in the left lane at about 2:00 in the afternoon.” So off the highway she goes, spinning 360s as her car sheds all of its 75 mph. She and her passenger spend a few days in the hospital nursing concussions–so lucky the car only spun and didn’t start to roll. Truck drives off, unidentified.
I get statements from the driver and the passenger–identical stories right down to their little car being about even with the tractor’s driver door when it started to come over–nothing our driver could have done. Which sucks because if my driver isn’t liable at all for the accident, I don’t get to pay even a fraction of her passenger’s medical bills. I’m bummed. And there is no uninsured motorist coverage on the policy either so the best I have is “Well, we’ll repair your car, you pay the shop $500 for your deductible, and we’ll call it a non-surchargable accident, so at least your rates don’t change for something that ain’t your fault.”
Well sumbitch if I don’t get a police report a week later and not only is the truck identified, so is the driver and his passenger! Bit of a twilight zone moment, but hey it’s good news because I get to tell my customer, "I still can’t pay anything for the medical expenses, but here’s the other vehicle’s info and their insurance company–they can pay ya. As happy an ending as you can hope for. But how did… Who…?
Turns out, the citizen driving behind my insured was one of those hypervigilant dash-cam having types. Recorded the whole incident, got the plate number of the truck, and handed over a copy of the footage to the cops (and my insured’s lawyer). Yay Citizen! I really wish there was some provision in the policy to allow me to pay that guy a few hundred buckazoids just for being a positive element. I gotta get me some dash-cams.
Honestly I don’t understand why more people don’t use them. Insanely helpful.
Just wrapped up dubbing off video of a crazy church van driver into a folder of “Idiot Marked Vehicle Operators” I am collecting for a future story someday.
My insured called and said a taxi hit his car trying to overtake him. He said he was driving in the lane when hit. He even drew a diagram to better explain his story. Swore up and down during a recorded statement that he wasn’t at fault.
Well, taxis have cameras. And the company quickly gave me a copy of the video showing that my insured changed lanes into the other vehicle. He was 100% at fault.
The ones I’ve seen mount on the roof between the windshield and rearview mirror. Any wires are routed beneath the interior trim moldings so you don’t see them. I’m pretty handy usually, but I think I’d be willing to let the Cartoys guys do the install.
I’ve never mounted a dashcam, but I’ve mounted fuzzbusters up near the mirror. It’s trivial to push the wires up into the molding near the headliner and down behind the A Pillar*. If you want to go all out, there’s kits you can get that make it very simple to wire it right into the fuse box, no wire splicing required. Add-a-fuse, I think it’s called. But it still takes some extra work. Even if you don’t want to do that, just run the wire up under the dash and bring it out to the lighter and plug it in. No big deal and easy to unplug when you turn the car off.
Regarding the accident it reminds me of a story I heard. A friend of mine was coming around a sharp bend on a freeway. As she came around the bend there was an accident (that had happened long before she got there) in the middle of the road. When she swerved around it, she end up bouncing off of both sides of the freeway and totaled the car she was driving. As I recall, she had a hard time with the insurance company because it was basically a single car accident. She never made any contact with the vehicle that she claimed caused the accident. Whether that’s true or she was mistaken on the details (she was 16 when it happened), I don’t know, but it always makes me worry about what would happen in a situation like the OP’s, someone changes lanes into you and you wind up on the curb/shoulder/oncoming traffic. If the area is clear, it’ll be find, but what if something is there that you’re going to hit? I’ve always told myself that if hitting something is going to be unavoidable, I’m going to make sure I let the car that’s moving into me at least tap my car before I end up on the shoulder. Hopefully, at least, that’ll get them to move back over and I don’t slam into a parked car or light pole, but at least the person won’t just drive away and never know what happened and it’ll be easier to show that they moved into my lane. Especially if there’s witnesses.
*With newer cars that have airbags in the pillar you do have to be careful that the wire doesn’t end up in front of the airbag. I doubt it’s going to be a problem if you just tuck it between the glass and trim, but when I mounted my XM radio, they had me take the trim off and put the wire behind the airbag. It’s kind of nerve wracking starting right at an airbag and poking at it. But again, it’s really pretty simple.
If you’re that worried, just find a 10 foot, or so, piece of wire, like a USB cord and see if you can find a way to run if from your mirror to under the day (even via the passenger side) and keep it out of view. I bet you can. Feel free to jam some of that poster putty up behind it it falls down in some spots.
Not sure what to tell you about backup cams, though they are pretty cheap, so what the heck.
As for dash cams the bottom line is you get what you pay for. I bough several of them, progressively more expensive, until I found the one I am happy with. The very cheap models just plain didn’t work right. More expensive ones worked but just sucked at night.
Today my best one in my work truck is a Lukas 7900. The unit works great. It automatically records over older video, records speed, vector forces & GPS location, and has the best hi-def and nighttime video I have seen. I use it for broadcast purposes when needed.
Good ones aren’t cheap, no getting around it, and I don’t recommend trying. Kinda like shoes; you can keep buying bad ones every year, or just one pair of good ones…
I mountedthis dashcam in my Accord. I stuck it right behind the mirror where it’s out of sight. The wire goes straight up and is tucked into the edge of the headliner, follows it over to the trim going down to the dash. From there it’s tucked under the rubber door trim and goes to the fuse box. I pulled the fuse for the cig lighter and plugged in one of these. Now the cam comes on automatically when the car is started. It just continually records until the card is full, and then starts over. Never have to touch it.
One thing to watch out for with dashcams is that they need to switch off when the car is off, or shortly thereafter. In my car, the cigarette lighter socket is always live and so I’ve had a dead battery when I left the dashcam power adapter in for several days without driving the car.
Just put a dash cam in my car about a month ago. Less than $40 on Amazon for camera + 32GB memory card, enough for three hours of video. It’s a cheap way to protect yourself against lying assholes and unreliable eyewitnesses. It also records in-cabin audio, so if I see something off-camera, or detail too small or faint for the camera to make out (e.g. a barely readable license plate number), I can blurt it out loud instead of trying to memorize it.
I would love to have an opportunity to use it to help the victim of a hit-and-run accident; that was a great story, OP.
