Whats the worst thing you've witnessed that your dash cam didnt capture

Skylar132

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I was remembering the time my brother was first on the scene to a near-fatal accident and the dash cam didnt record it. Got me wondering, whats the worst/craziest thing you witnessed that your dash cam didn't record/ when you didnt own one
 
Many years ago, before dash cams, probably the 1970s I was on the highway and an American station wagon experienced some kind of 'event' and ended upside down on the roof sliding down the road for quite a distance.

1970-station-wagon.jpg
 
When i was a kid, about 11 or 12 years old, i was walking home with my mother after shopping at the local mini market.
We met a smaller kid i knew, i think he was 8 or 9 years old, anyway we passed and about 10 - 15 seconds after i heard a almighty crash and spun around to see what it was, in time to see the kid at his apex some 4 M or so up in the air.
The kid was in hospital for many many months and did also suffer brain damage, though he did not turn veggie but damn near it.

I was on the sidewalk to the left in this street view, and looking back in that direction, the street still have the old fashioned suspended street lighting i see, the kid was up there near its wires.

I can only assume the kid ran out from the sidewalk on the left and strait out in front of a car going down the street in the direction of view, and then BAM and he was airborne.
My mother sent me home, and then rushed back,,,,, TBH i have never spoken with her about what happened or how it looked, and she felt no need to tell me in the decades since then. ( this must have been the mid /late 70ties as i turned 10 in 1976 )

On camera what could have been a mess but fortunately did not, way back in the day when i had the Lukas LK-7500 i was stopped at a red light, it turend green and a elderly couple started walking, as a car from the left ran a red light, this car was also manned by a elderly couple.

 
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Been in a roll over where car flipped about 7 times or so, before stopping on it's roof, hanging us all upside down. I was a ~18 yrs old or so with friends. Got the T-Shirt and never want to do that again. Back in those technology dark ages of the 1990s.
 
honestly didnt expect how severe you all got it, the worst i personally witnessed was a ford focus rear ending a ford galaxy and it spinning into a crash barrier, no injuries but even after that it took a year for my family to buy a dash cam
 
honestly didnt expect how severe you all got it, the worst i personally witnessed was a ford focus rear ending a ford galaxy and it spinning into a crash barrier, no injuries but even after that it took a year for my family to buy a dash cam

I've been hit twice since owning a camera. Makes life a lot easier. Worth every bit of money spent.
 
Pre-dashcam I've seen much if you count conning across the aftermath. But I don't need a video to remember what I experienced as a passenger at 19. Our light changed to yellow and my friend nailed the big old Ford to get through. I looked over at the speedo- 65MPH. I looked ahead and a Chevy Nova was turning left in front of us. Maybe 1/4 seconds of tires screeching then BAM- we hit half-and-half head on :eek: The hood scoop raised straight up about a foot (30cm) then flew forward straight and level, passing by the Nova. We sheared apart and bounded straight toward a telephone pole dead-center. 4 road signs died before we hit the pole, which snapped and onward we went. I remember thinking "This is gonna hurt" just before we hit. The windshield was intact and flew straight forward intact before breaking on the pole, splinters flew everywhere. Another pole was just past that and I may have shut my eyes (or had a face-full of dashboard) as I felt it more than saw it. It also snapped and I saw the sign past it slam down on what was left of the hood then get flattened under us as we passed, and then I saw the pole we came to rest against. Then there was the strangest silence for several seconds before bystanders started yelling and approaching. I got my door kicked open and got out.

Somehow we both walked away with just some bruises as did the Nova driver. I was in shock for perhaps 10 minutes afterward- that part is hazy but when my mind cleared and I looked at what was left of my friends car I knew we should have been dead. That huge 70 Ford was built like a tank but the front of what was left of it was at the firewall, the engine underneath. I was a gearhead even back then and I remember my friend asking if I thought we could fix it o_O

Seat belts work people- that's all that saved me. Here over 40 years later I can close my eyes and see it all as it happened but it's all in slow motion; I've never remembered it at real-time speed :rolleyes: You don't want to smell humans burning and see bodies chopped in half- trust me; those events I came upon later just after they happened. Life is fragile and I've definitely used up 100% of my luck so I'm very careful now, and I don't care to see any more carnage in person ever again.

Phil
 
O i would so take a nice GEN 3 Nova SS :cool:
 
Pre-dashcam I've seen much if you count conning across the aftermath. But I don't need a video to remember what I experienced as a passenger at 19. Our light changed to yellow and my friend nailed the big old Ford to get through. I looked over at the speedo- 65MPH. I looked ahead and a Chevy Nova was turning left in front of us. Maybe 1/4 seconds of tires screeching then BAM- we hit half-and-half head on :eek: The hood scoop raised straight up about a foot (30cm) then flew forward straight and level, passing by the Nova. We sheared apart and bounded straight toward a telephone pole dead-center. 4 road signs died before we hit the pole, which snapped and onward we went. I remember thinking "This is gonna hurt" just before we hit. uld fix it o_O

Seat belts work people- that's all that saved me. Here over 40 years later I can close my eyes and see it all as it happened but it's all in slow motion; I've never remembered it at real-time speed :rolleyes: You don't want to smell humans burning and see bodies chopped in half- trust me; those events I came upon later just after they happened. Life is fragile and I've definitely used up 100% of my luck so I'm very careful now, and I don't care to see any more carnage in person ever again.

Phil

You know, same experience. We almost hit a telephone pole, but instead my friend tried to avoid it, and hit a ditch instead which caused the car to go airborne. I'm not sure what would have been better honestly. Wrapping the pole would have most definitely injured those in the front in a Toyota Sedan. But rolling, those in front were OK sans Front Passenger who ended up with a dislocated shoulder.

Unfortunately, I was the only "Lucky" back passenger. Smacked my head on the damn glass and had a bloody nose and bump on head. I was first one to drop seatbelt, fall on my head, and cuss like a sailor as I crawled out the broken passenger window through shards of glass cutting into my arm. Didn't feel wonderful. Walked about for good 1 minute punch drunk as if I'd been spun in an office chair 100 times.

Whole thing felt like an hour. I remember slow motion thinking Cars Flipping. ****. Ok I'm Alive. Car Flipping Again. O **** this sucks. I'm Alive. Til about the 7th or so time when it came to a stop and thinking, well Still alive. This ****ing sucks. Bet the whole thing was over in 1-2 minutes tops.

Entire Roof was caved in, windows busted out, etc. Girl next to me in middle passenger seat had all the glass fly in her face. Made Freddy Kruger Look Handsome. Girl next to her behind front passenger had a massive concussion. Knocked herself senseless.

22+ Years later, I like you can replay every moment in my head like yesterday. These things are hard to forget!
 
I've been hit twice since owning a camera. Makes life a lot easier. Worth every bit of money spent.
we got sideswiped in november 2018 and still didnt get a cam till october 2019, never learned our lesson
 
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we got sideswiped in november 2018 and still didnt get a cam till october 2019, never learned our lesson

Can't lead a horse to water! My other car was broken into and camera caught that, too (Parking Mode). For such a small amount of money, I truly don't understand why most people don't have a camera. I even installed one in my mother's car. She kept asking why I have this and is this a backup camera. Well I made her understand very easily.

She says I was driving and this guy ran a traffic light and almost hit me. I pulled up video and showed her. Proof of concept changes one's understanding very quickly.
 
Can't lead a horse to water! My other car was broken into and camera caught that, too (Parking Mode). For such a small amount of money, I truly don't understand why most people don't have a camera. I even installed one in my mother's car. She kept asking why I have this and is this a backup camera. Well I made her understand very easily.

She says I was driving and this guy ran a traffic light and almost hit me. I pulled up video and showed her. Proof of concept changes one's understanding very quickly.
I have family who I've offered to help with dash cams before, some dont want anything to do with them and i had a cousin ask for my advice then she went and got a £30 amazon dash cam with a no brand card, I'm expecting a call from her if she ever gets in an accident asking why the videos arent recording
 
I put a camera in my sisters last car, but i cant do that in her new car due to me mentioning that a camera might interfere with DAB radio.
And now saying anything dont matter at all.

Thank god i am a bachelor and can make do with just looking at the girls. :p
 
I have family who I've offered to help with dash cams before, some dont want anything to do with them and i had a cousin ask for my advice then she went and got a £30 amazon dash cam with a no brand card, I'm expecting a call from her if she ever gets in an accident asking why the videos arent recording

Installing a dash camera (properly) is a monumental pain in the ass. I got in a debate with someone when trying to figure out how to wire my mother's honda, that you can't simply tuck the wires into the pillar trim. That all trim has to come off and wires routed behind airbags / curtains. I installed two cameras in her car and with learning curve (never wired a honda), took about 6 hrs from start to finish. Including hardwiring, placing cameras, etc etc. I installed two different ones (redundancy).

That said, I wouldn't be without a camera in my car ever. Too many people on the road creating too many problems. They are there to protect me and record events, as needed.

Those cheapie cameras are problems waiting to happen. Soon as you need the footage, that's when you'll find they dont work or don't work well.
 
I was sitting at the front of a line of traffic stopped at a red light where a road feeds in from the left on an angle, those lanes have to go in front of where I was sitting. All this is 4 lanes wide total on each road. About 200m past where I was is another light which adds a left turn lane. In that section were several cars in that left turn lane and several cars in the right-hand lane, with two cars sitting in the center lane. As I had stopped on yellow, I knew it would be about 45 seconds before I got the green, so I'm looking around. At the front of the nearest line of cars to my left was an obviously very aggravated red-headed woman driving a small black car having a heated argument with the man in the passenger seat. He was pointing is finger at her shouting and her arms were flailing around as she was shouting to him. She didn't let up for a moment or notice that her light had changed with cars to her left proceeding to the left turn lane ahead of me. I guess everyone was enjoying the spectacle as nobody honked their horn for about 4-5 seconds when the man's finger changed from pointing at her to pointing forward. With hardly a glance ahead she gave the little 4 cylinder full throttle :oops:

As she pulled off it was one quick glance ahead and into the center lane ahead of me; the arguing never stopped. I was expecting her to ram someone from behind as she was looking only at her passenger- that didn't happen though :cautious: What DID happen is that she hit the car to her right, turned her head to see what she'd hit, jerked the wheel left then hit the car to her left, jerked the wheel back and then rammed the car sitting in the center lane ahead of her :eek: A perfect 'trifecta'! Her male passenger looked over at her shaking his head in disgust. She looked over at him with a very shocked look on her face which after a couple seconds went back to aggravation, whence the intense arguing started again. I looked around and the amused faces of everyone in traffic with me was intermingled with people laughing their AO as I was :ROFLMAO: It was all low speed so nobody would have gotten hurt and with the way the damage hapopened and all the witnesses it would be clear what had happened to the Cops. With the road all blocked ahead everyone began detouring into the shopping center to my right to avoid being stuck which I did myself when my light turned green. This was long before dashcams, but if I had that footage I could have sold it for a ton of money, and it still ranks as one of the funniest things I've ever witnessed in my life.

Phil
 
A couple of things, both pre-dash cam era: (1) Two friends and I were driving on the interstate to a baseball game. We passed a slow moving tractor trailer. My friend who was driving looked in the rearview mirror in time to see a Camaro run underneath the trailer of the rig we had just passed. We went back to see if we could help. The corner of the trailer peeled back the roof over the Camaro's passenger seat, all the way to the back. The driver was shaken up but not seriously injured. He complained that he was going to be late picking up his girlfriend. If she had been in the passenger seat, or if the Camaro had been 18 inches farther to the right there would likely have been a fatality.

(2) Years later I was driving on the interstate in the right-hand lane, at about 70 mph. A car passed me on the left, going quite a bit faster. I watched as it drifted to the left, expecting the driver to correct and move back into the center of his lane. Instead, he drifter farther left, over the rumble strip, then onto the grass. I believe the driver had fallen asleep, because he suddenly veered to the right, crossing my lane (I had slowed considerably when I saw grass and dirt flying into the air), and went up the embankment, flipping over and landing on the roof several hundred feet in front of me. I stopped, and managed to get the hood of his car (which had been bent around and blocked the driver's door) pulled out of the way. The driver was conscious, and was able to unlock his door. Several other cars had stopped by this time. I pulled the door open and the driver crawled out under his own power. We then moved him away from the car because we could hear the sound of some liquid dripping onto some hot surface, and were afraid the car would catch fire (it didn't). When the state troopers arrived and searched the car, they found a speeding ticket the driver had received a couple of days before, for driving 100+ mph a couple of states away, if I recall correctly. I had to give a written statement. When I left an ambulance had arrived. I don't know the extent of the driver's injuries.
 
A couple of things, both pre-dash cam era: (1) Two friends and I were driving on the interstate to a baseball game. We passed a slow moving tractor trailer. My friend who was driving looked in the rearview mirror in time to see a Camaro run underneath the trailer of the rig we had just passed. We went back to see if we could help. The corner of the trailer peeled back the roof over the Camaro's passenger seat, all the way to the back. The driver was shaken up but not seriously injured. He complained that he was going to be late picking up his girlfriend. If she had been in the passenger seat, or if the Camaro had been 18 inches farther to the right there would likely have been a fatality.

(2) Years later I was driving on the interstate in the right-hand lane, at about 70 mph. A car passed me on the left, going quite a bit faster. I watched as it drifted to the left, expecting the driver to correct and move back into the center of his lane. Instead, he drifter farther left, over the rumble strip, then onto the grass. I believe the driver had fallen asleep, because he suddenly veered to the right, crossing my lane (I had slowed considerably when I saw grass and dirt flying into the air), and went up the embankment, flipping over and landing on the roof several hundred feet in front of me. I stopped, and managed to get the hood of his car (which had been bent around and blocked the driver's door) pulled out of the way. The driver was conscious, and was able to unlock his door. Several other cars had stopped by this time. I pulled the door open and the driver crawled out under his own power. We then moved him away from the car because we could hear the sound of some liquid dripping onto some hot surface, and were afraid the car would catch fire (it didn't). When the state troopers arrived and searched the car, they found a speeding ticket the driver had received a couple of days before, for driving 100+ mph a couple of states away, if I recall correctly. I had to give a written statement. When I left an ambulance had arrived. I don't know the extent of the driver's injuries.

Exactly why I am glad Dash Cameras now exist. I've been in two accidents since owning a camera. Nothing life threatening, but both someone else's fault. Dash Cameras make life easier in these types of situations.
 
Yeah, i feel pretty naked with no camera in a car, even in my own car with 1 out of too many systems not working.
I had some issues with my side cameras a while back, but turned out to just be memory card issues, anyway while investigating i felt naked even if it is extremely rare i go to the side cameras for footage,,,,, actually i am also bad at even doing due diligence footage inspection on that camera system. :oops:
 
I could honestly never go out with a dash cam, if absolutely necessary i would use a phone
 
btw what is your side cam setup like, id be interested to see it
 
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