Hit-and-Run - Caught on Dashcam

[traveler]

Left work around 7:30 PM, merged onto 405 S, and was promptly rear-ended by a pickup truck. The truck driver fled the scene.

The impact drove my Miata into the car in front of me (a brand new Nissan). I saw the whole thing from my rear-view mirror but was powerless to get out of the way. The California Highway Patrol came and took our statements. Although there were plenty of people around, no witnesses came forward. I was only able to tell the cops that it was a dark pickup truck that hit me.

The silver lining was that my trusty Street Guardian SG9663DCPRO front/rear dashcam recorded the whole thing!

Although the footage was dark, we were able to make out the license plate and give it to the CHP and insurance company. As a cathartic, I put together a video of the accident and how we analyzed the footage.

Thankfully, no one was hurt. I’m crossing my fingers that the CHP follows through and catch the guy. A little karma would be a small victory!

John
http://dashcamviewer.com

 

[kamkar]

That "Ferd" drive messed with the wrong car hope you and the police get that guy, leaving the scene of a accident are so un-classy to say the least.
Are you going to move your rear camera further out back, it is just barely making the capture in its current location.
Where do you have your rear camera installed, on a head rest or something ?

 

[TonyM]

Did you get any plate info from when you passed the guy at 19:37:45 just before he hit you?

 

[jokiin]

that's a nice walk through of some of the software features, have shared that on our Facebook page

 

[kamkar]

Thats what i thaught too, not have been dabbling much with the player.

 

[TonyM]

Wrong thread?

 

[kamkar]

yes this are mot the MAXI & F1 conversation

 

[traveler]

Did you get any plate info from when you passed the guy at 19:37:45 just before he hit you?

No, too far away and too dark. The plate only became visible in the rear camera.

@kamkar1 The rear camera is attached to my plexiglass wind blocker. On a convertible, there are not many options for mounting rear cam.

 

[traveler]

that's a nice walk through of some of the software features, have shared that on our Facebook page

Props to the SG9663DC PRO, @jokiin. It saved my butt. If I hadn't had a reliable 2channel dashcam installed, we never would have been able to get the license plate.

 

[jokiin]

No, too far away and too dark. The plate only became visible in the rear camera.

@kamkar1 The rear camera is attached to my plexiglass wind blocker. On a convertible, there are not many options for mounting rear cam.

we have a waterproof external camera coming which is good for convertibles, I'll make sure you get one of those once they're available

 

[kamkar]

Aaaa i had a felling it was something like that, you don't see many convertibles over here, too expensive for how little you can actually drive it and enjoy it.
On me personally that concept are totally lost.

 

[crabu2]

Aaaa i had a felling it was something like that, you don't see many convertibles over here, too expensive for how little you can actually drive it and enjoy it.
On me personally that concept are totally lost.

What? Why can't people drive them more often? Sometimes, I'll drive mine with the top down when it's a light snow... Just need to be dressed like an Eskimo... LOL.. In my younger days, I drove through a thunder storm with the top down.. Dang rain caught me by surprise.. and once I was wet, I was like, why put the top up? It's not going to be any dryer. LOL.

 

[kamkar]

Weather, almost as bad as in the UK our neighbor to the west.
And yeah you can make do, but i think Danes don't like that or are too comfortable.
Maybe modern fordable hard tops, but ragtops and old styles ones you have to stop and put up / down manual i think most Danes are too lazy to handle.

Orange County in CALI are probably more easy to handle, and you probably just have to put the top up once in a while if a shower pass buy, here its the other way around and you have to put the top down if a sunny day pass by, and you be lucky if there are several of those days in a row.

 

[SawMaster]

Very well done John, and sorry to hear that you needed to use your excellent program for yourself.

Did you get any plate info from when you passed the guy at 19:37:45 just before he hit you?

This was my first thought, and I've found that many times I could find a clearer shot of a vehicle in traffic prior to or after the incident I wanted to capture than what I got in the incident itself.

With a bit of luck they should be able to find that guy and even if they can't prosecute him there should be enough proof via the damage to make his insurance company pay. Unless it's changed, California is "No Fault" or "Shared fault" in nature so it's anyone's guess what the outcome will be. I still wouldn't want to be in that guy's shoes as his insurance will probably be cancelled and he will have to pay for his own defense lawyers at the very least. He could become an involuntary pedestrian too- I sure hope so!

Phil

 

[traveler]

we have a waterproof external camera coming which is good for convertibles, I'll make sure you get one of those once they're available

Wonderful! Thank you, @jokiin.

BTW, some good news:

My insurance company did a reverse search on the license plate and sure enough it came back as a "2002 Ford F150" truck, registered to an owner who lives about 6 miles from the crash site. This is consistent with what's seen in the video. They are trying to determine if he's got insurance. I still haven't heard anything from the CHP despite two inquiries to the cop who took the report.

Just got the repair estimate from the body shop: $10,000 to fix her up.

@kamkar1 This is my first convertible sports car-- and it's a blast to drive! Very visceral, analog, and connected experience that's hard to explain.

 

[kamkar]

Trust me if i get to realize my dream US tour, doing part of it in a convertible would be nice.

 

[Nigel]

Trust me if i get to realize my dream US tour, doing part of it in a convertible would be nice.

Not sure you would fit in the Miata! But I guess you wouldn't choose a Japanese copy of a British sports car for your tour of the US anyway, even though it is a good car. What car are you going to choose...

 

[kamkar]

I will get a pinto and a battery powered angle grinder

 

[Dashmellow]

@traveler, I found your demonstration of how you used Dashcam Viewer to analyze the video for the difficult license plate capture useful and enlightening. I was surprised though that you spent so much time repeatedly rolling back the video over and over in an effort to find a clear image of the plate, both when the truck is just about to hit you as well as when you were trying to isolate the moment the plate was illuminated by your hazard flasher.

I generally use a different approach.

One of the features that attracts me to Dashcam Viewer that is not available in all media players is the ability to move forward and backwards frame by frame using the arrow keys on the keyboard. When I'm looking for a particular detail such as a plate capture in a video I will simply hit the space bar to pause the footage and then begin viewing frame by frame moving back and forth until the clearest, sharpest frame reveals itself. Holding the left or right arrow key down provides a nice forwards and backwards slow motion frame by frame "movie" which I also find useful when scanning for a particular frame of detail.

Then, when I find the frame I need I'll use Dashcam Viewer to zoom in a bit to see if it can improve things. Again, here with the built-in zoom capability Dashcam Viewer offers a unique and valuable feature not always seen in other viewers and media players.

Before Dashcam Viewer came along I used QuickTime Player (and still often do, in part because of its many useful hidden features) which also provides the same frame by frame viewing capability which I use along with the built in screen magnification zoom feature on the Mac computer. (hold down the Control key while scrolling your mouse forward and the entire screen will magnify) - I'm often amused to learn that most everyone I've ever demonstrated this technique to on the Mac (even Pros) didn't know this built-in system feature exists - If you are on a Mac and are not familiar with this technique, try it and see what happens. It's a simple tool that comes in very handy at times. In fact, if you carefully combine the magnification capabilities of Dashcam Viewer with the built in screen magnification capability on Mac computers you can sometimes see details emerge that either zoom feature alone won't reveal!

Anyway, I find my approach for isolating a particular frame to be faster and more a accurate than trying to eyeball a fleeting detail in a playing video by watching it over and over.

 

[TonyM]

I was surprised though that you spent so much time repeatedly rolling back the video over and over in an effort to find a clear image of the plate, both when the truck is just about to hit you as well as when you were trying to isolate the moment the plate was illuminated by your hazard flasher.

When I'm looking for a particular detail such as a plate capture in a video I will simply hit the space bar to pause the footage and then begin viewing frame by frame moving back and forth until the clearest, sharpest frame reveals itself. Holding the left or right arrow key down provides a nice forwards and backwards slow motion frame by frame "movie" which I also find useful when scanning for a particular frame of detail.

I tend to do the frame by frame approach too, with a different player, but as @traveler said in his video, sometimes it's easier for our eyes to discern detail from a moving video than from any single frame.

I have never tried Dashcam Viewer so this was a good introduction to its capabilities for me.