| Author | Message | ||
     Ridesinnm |
I hate that I even have to consider it, but I guess maybe it's a sign of the times. Yesterday my wife pulled up behind a car at a four way stop. The lady in front of her backed into her, horn honking and all. She said she was waiting for her husband, and didn't want to park so close to the intersection. Her husband walked up, asked what happened, and she said she backed into her. Then she went home, called the insurance company and told them my wife ran into the back of her. No witnesses. The insurance company, State Farm for both, said we don't know who was at fault, so we have to pay the deductible now to get ours fixed. I feel like we were the victim of a crime, and there is nothing that we can do about it. It was a very minor accident, but what if it were worse? Someone runs a red light and plows into us, no witnesses, and says we ran the light? Brad. | ||
| Froggy |
I just bought one, I've heard good things about this Fineview CR-500HD, $269 right now on Massdrop https://www.massdrop.com/buy/fineview-cr500 (You need to log in to see details) Here is the same cam on Amazon, it has great reviews http://www.amazon.com/Finevu-CR-500HD-Vehicle-Reco rder-1920x1080p/dp/B00AIBEBZG Obviously I don't have mine yet, but I am getting it for exactly the reason you are posting about. | ||
| Loki |
Think GoPro3 White edition. Even a (older)GoPro HD. Hang it from your rearview mirror mount using "the frame" mount. The 3's have wifi built in. Use your phone/ipod to control it, or the purpose built wifi remote. Video chews up a battery fairly quick, but can do time lapse recording also. | ||
| Satori |
I have my cell phone on a mount in my truck( a samsung s3). I've been using the video feature for a dash cam. I simply erase the video at the end of the day, or a couple times a week. As added protection, I turn on the gps and have it log gps position to. Thankfully I have not needed to actually use it. | ||
| Hootowl |
The ecm in her car may have recorded the event. It may indicate that she was in reverse at the time. Cant hurt to ask. | ||
| Ridesinnm |
Thats interesting, I wouldn't have thought about the ECM. Unfortunately, she was in an SUV, and my wife was in a small car. It wasn't an impact that I think would register. Just a scrape across the top of the nose cone, about where the emblem is. Ideally, I think it would be best to have one that was wired into the car, and recorded on a loop, like the one froggy mentioned. Otherwise, I'm afraid it wouldn't be on all that much. | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
Ask your insurance company. In UK & some other countries in Europe, insurance companies will offer the equipment at a vastly reduced price or even free if you signup for 2 years or something like that. It's in their own interest after all. I feel that it's only a matter of time til it becomes obligatory to have one installed to get insurance. At which point the gov will step in & say that they have a right & duty to have access to the data to combat crime/terrorism/aliens or somesuch crap. Big brother is indeed watching. | ||
| Dpb |
In watching U Tube, everybody in Russia must have one! Terrific accidents. | ||
| 86129squids |
 Yeppers, it's become a cottage industry there for scammers, so it's pretty much SOP to have cameras in the car. No reason to not expect the douche-canoes to try that here... got a friend who already has them mounted up in all his vehicles, he's a retired firefighter/EMT/patch-wearer, the type I implicitly trust when it comes to good advice. | ||
| Reepicheep |
On a whim, I'm going to try this $18 one. In terms of reliability and resolution and quality, it is junk. But it's priced accordingly. Hopefully it lasts for a year and I can decide if I want a better one (like what Froggy recommends). http://www.amazon.com/SainSpeed-Microphone-Rotatab le-Foldable-display/dp/B004YHVNWO/ref=cm_cmu_pg__h eader | ||
| Loki |
The data record function(cars computer) does not just record impact data. The bad part is it needs to be retrieved before they really do much more with the key on. Its on a loop. Records speed, acceleration, braking, trans gear, impact sensor activation and such. Some of them record g-forces also. Just think about what information that PROGRESSIVE module collects for them. How about what info OnStar has access to, regardless of wether you have an active account or not. | ||
| Ourdee |
Froggy what do you think about the gopro cameras? | ||
| Froggy |
They are awesome, but they are not ideal for dashcams. Same with phones. | ||
| Froggy |
Correct. Basically unless the car was towed, the data is long gone. | ||
| Reepicheep |
The one I linked above is pretty much crap from an image quality, night performance, and build quality standpoint. The angle of view is OK, but not quite as wide as would be nice. But it meets the important minimums for a dash cam... you can set it up to just start when the car turns on, and run until you turn the car off, and it will loop through memory forever until you tell it to stop (and you pull off the last X hours of captured video). During daylight, it will capture plenty of information to show "what happened", but it probably won't capture things like license plates. If you don't want crap like I got (priced appropriately) the camera Froggy posted looks very nice, and there is another $120 one between Froggy's and mine that looks to have gotten decent reviews. Having one could cut both ways legally, it's an interesting question. Having been through a not at fault accident and resulting litigation, every piece of information is both your friend and your enemy. So you want precisely the information that shows the truth of your position, but no more. For me, it was a police report and two witness statements in the report. That was really all the reliable and objective information that was available. It made the case a slam dunk for me from a legal perspective. But what if I had the previous 10 hours of video available? I don't know the detailed rules of discovery, but in general, if I introduce "something" into evidence, I have to make "all of it" available to opposing counsel. And 10 hours of *anyone* doing *anything* *anywhere* will surely provide something useful to opposing counsel. It would fore sure help in a case like this one though, where one party is just flat out lying, and there were no witnesses. Personally, I'm honest to a fault, so installing the camera is a no brainer to me. I suspect it is a net loss from a legal standpoint, but personally I value complete and total transparency. It hurts me tactically in many situations, but it helps me strategically overall (people learn this about me, which helps in the long run, and I live my life in a way that assumes I hope to never have to hide anything, which is just simpler and less stressful to me in the long run). Sorry for the philosophical diatribe. Just something to think about. | ||
| Ridesinnm |
Well, we got good unexpected news yesterday. My agent called and said they found the other driver 100% at fault. I learned some about the process talking with him. Even though we both have State Farm, the initial process is more like it was two different companies. Both parties are assigned an adjuster, who I think is your advocate until there is a reason to not believe your story. I don't know what tipped the scales in our favor. Probably wont ever know. My agent wondered if maybe her story wasn't consistent to the different adjusters. It sure is refreshing when something like this goes the way it should. | ||
| Reepicheep |
Hopefully the woman or her husband decided they didn't want to sell a little piece of their soul just to save a few dollars. Or at least weren't very sincere in their attempt to do so. | ||
| Notpurples2 |
With the amount of cameras these days, if it happened in an urban area it might have been caught on a traffic or security camera. For them to assign 100% blame I imagine either they got evidence or the other party fessed up. | ||
| Preybird1 |
I got into an accident with an attorney and it was his fault. I had multiple witnesses that it was his fault. I had storage insurance on the car because it was a classic and i was taking it into work to get it ready for it's usual summer driving. The insurance tried to come after me for the lack of insurance (like the accident was my fault anyway) He sued me and i counter sued and lost!! I did not have to pay for the 3rd car in the accident because they could not prove i caused it. But the attorney finally settled for $1500.00 cash So he could fix his 97 honda accord. I hit him at 25mph after he swerved into my lane to avoid stopped cars and he cut me off and i totaled it. he put a dent in my bumper! Lesson learned have dam good insurance and a witness! *Never admit fault ever and let the insurance companies fight it out* If i could get a nice dash cam i would get it right away. But i need one for a motorcycle.I only drive my truck in the winter and only 5,000 miles a year. | ||
| Etennuly |
*Never admit fault ever and let the insurance companies fight it out* Being in the body shop business for decades, I have found this to be good advice. A few times over the years I have heard stories of the people admitting to being at fault to be proven wrong. They only had one perspective of the accident. One of our customer's admitted running into the back of a car at an intersection, it was found that another car having matching rubber bumpers had a soft impact on the rear of her car that pushed her to where she could not stop for the car in front. She never knew she was pushed because she was so focused on what was in front of her, then the air bag deployed. The un-insured guy from behind, stayed to "witness" the accident for the police report after he realized there was no visible damage on his car. They told me an actual witness to the event called in. The guy who pushed her caused the accident, then hid facts in his part of the police report. He got sued by the insurance companies for the entire event and busted for hit and run, and some other charges, like being uninsured, lying to officers and such. Oh yeah, my point is, are you going to have in car cameras pointed in all directions? (Message edited by etennuly on September 06, 2013) | ||
| Buellkowski |
Thanks for this thread, guys. This has been on my mind lately, too. I have been rear-ended no less than 6 times in the last 20 years, and 5 of those times the perp tried to come up with lies & excuses to deflect fault. When I get a dash cam, I'm pointing it to the rear. That's where my danger lies. Should be able to get a few entertaining clips of folks picking their noses as well. | ||
| Reepicheep |
That $18 camera showed up. Image quality is pretty crappy, but it will tell a good part of the story in many circumstances if there is an accident. It does do what I really needed, which is seamless / brainless "car starts camera starts, car turns off camera turns off, when card is full the oldest files are overwritten. No idea how long it will last. | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
The huge advantage of a dash-cam, no matter it's quality, even a cheapo one like Reepicheep got, is that IT'S THERE & people won't try to weasel if they think they may be caught out. I'd be tempted to put a sticker in your windshield somewhere stating the fact that the camera is there & operational. | ||
| Aesquire |
While I can see the idea of recording your accidents, and I appreciate the humor from the "Russian Dash Cam" compilations, ( and the terror ) I'm not sure I want one.... OTOH http://chillingkoala.com/post/28931 | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
In the OPs case though all he'd have to say to the other party when they try to deny their liability is, "No problem, it's all on the dash-cam I'll let the insurance & the police sort it out, after all that's what I pay them for." You can bet they'll be wanting to sort things out quickly & quietly right away. | ||
| Ridesinnm |
It might be a tough call. Letting them know you have a dash cam right away might keep them from lying. Part of me would want to only make that known if it was needed and after I had watched it to make sure it showed what I needed to support my claim Brad. | ||
| Reepicheep |
Here is some sample video from my infamous $18 dash cam in the Saab. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmFeQuDtdR4&feature =youtu.be I picked the most interesting moment in a week of driving, which, frankly, isn't that interesting (the excitement peaks at 30 seconds in). Crappy video quality, especially in the low morning light. It gets better in full light, but not that much better. I'm happy with it for the money. It's an interesting experiment. | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
Nothing wrong with that video, I expect Horatio Caine can clean that up & read the reflection in the windshield of the text message that the guy in front was sending to his criminal friends.  | ||
| Rah7777777 |
https://www.bulls-ivehicledriverecorders.com/ETK-B 3500VehicleDriveRecorderFrontandRearHDCarBlackBoxD ashboardCameraDVR.aspx I just bought the above. I'll do an update when I get it installed in the wifes car. Figured after this recent motorcycle and Range Rover deal, it might be a good idea to have something in the car. I've got the house decked out, might as well go full creepy guy and do the cars too... HAHA | ||
| Reepicheep |
Fancy! My $18 one is still working perfectly. Thinking about getting another one to hard wire into the bike with my own weatherproofing. |
