As mentioned earlier in an introduction thread, I am a retired Police Officer. After decades being a street cop, I've personally investigated hundreds of traffic accidents and then when you consider my last 10 years was as a Sergeant, those hundreds exponentially grew to over a thousand since I was required to read, evaluate then approve several written accident investigations from officers under me...daily. Officer investigated traffic accidents are not done in the interest of crime solving...they're done to make insurance companies jobs easier. That absolutely infuriated cops out there devoting hours daily to the task of accident investigation.
Cops would love nothing more than to arrive at the scene of an accident, where someone actually had video evidence of what happened, where we wouldn't have to listen to 5-10 almost completely different accounts of what happened from "so called" eye witnesses. Often times, it (almost) comes down to a flip of the coin to determine who was at fault. In those cases and there are quite a few of them, we write down on the report, "fault undetermined" However, there are cops who, through good intention, put the wrong person at fault. That, unfortunately leaves that "at fault" motorist to have to fend for themselves with their insurance company. Now of course, insurance companies have the final say as to who they determine to be at fault...they don't have to go along with the police officer's written investigation, but, unless there is the potential for a major litigation, those reports are almost always accepted. In all of those accident investigations, I've only seen ONE with Dash-Cam evidence...ONLY ONE, and of the 5 or so cars involved in the pile up, not one of them had the Dash-Cam...it was on a car not even involved in the accident. He forgot he had the camera up and running until days later, right before the file was overwritten.
From my best recollection, it was discovered that the one vehicle noted as P-1 (symbol for the 1st primary vehicle at fault) was not even close to being at fault. He was so relieved to hear that and I suspect his insurance company was equally pleased since several people at the scene were transported to hospitals with mysterious "Neck and Back" injuries. On a side note, you guys are gonna like this part. One of the vehicles involved was a pick up truck and it nearly overturned at the scene. The driver of the pick up truck was concerned about a very expensive large but portable electric generator that was dislodged and flew out of the bed of his truck. He was equally upset when he was told at the hospital officers didn't find any kind of generator at the scene. Well, when we reviewed the Dash-Cam video of the accident days later, we were able to clearly see two or three guys get out of a non-involved truck at the scene and in broad daylight pick up a large piece of equipment at the curb and after placing it in their truck, speed off. The camera wasn't good enough at the time to read the plate, but it was able to read the business name on the side of the truck. Officers went to that business and were able to eventually ID the 3 men, all of whom were subsequently charged with possession of stolen property...a felony and the generator, though only slightly damaged but still useable, was returned to the owner who had no insurance to cover the loss.
The owner of the business stepped up and did the right thing...he told the owner of the generator his company would repair or replace the generator for him because of what his ex-employees did
So...Yes, I along with lots of cops I know, wish more motorists out there would arm themselves with Dash-Cams. It's a total mystery why it never caught on here, but I suspect it will real soon thanks to Forums like this.
Cops would love nothing more than to arrive at the scene of an accident, where someone actually had video evidence of what happened, where we wouldn't have to listen to 5-10 almost completely different accounts of what happened from "so called" eye witnesses. Often times, it (almost) comes down to a flip of the coin to determine who was at fault. In those cases and there are quite a few of them, we write down on the report, "fault undetermined" However, there are cops who, through good intention, put the wrong person at fault. That, unfortunately leaves that "at fault" motorist to have to fend for themselves with their insurance company. Now of course, insurance companies have the final say as to who they determine to be at fault...they don't have to go along with the police officer's written investigation, but, unless there is the potential for a major litigation, those reports are almost always accepted. In all of those accident investigations, I've only seen ONE with Dash-Cam evidence...ONLY ONE, and of the 5 or so cars involved in the pile up, not one of them had the Dash-Cam...it was on a car not even involved in the accident. He forgot he had the camera up and running until days later, right before the file was overwritten.
From my best recollection, it was discovered that the one vehicle noted as P-1 (symbol for the 1st primary vehicle at fault) was not even close to being at fault. He was so relieved to hear that and I suspect his insurance company was equally pleased since several people at the scene were transported to hospitals with mysterious "Neck and Back" injuries. On a side note, you guys are gonna like this part. One of the vehicles involved was a pick up truck and it nearly overturned at the scene. The driver of the pick up truck was concerned about a very expensive large but portable electric generator that was dislodged and flew out of the bed of his truck. He was equally upset when he was told at the hospital officers didn't find any kind of generator at the scene. Well, when we reviewed the Dash-Cam video of the accident days later, we were able to clearly see two or three guys get out of a non-involved truck at the scene and in broad daylight pick up a large piece of equipment at the curb and after placing it in their truck, speed off. The camera wasn't good enough at the time to read the plate, but it was able to read the business name on the side of the truck. Officers went to that business and were able to eventually ID the 3 men, all of whom were subsequently charged with possession of stolen property...a felony and the generator, though only slightly damaged but still useable, was returned to the owner who had no insurance to cover the loss.
The owner of the business stepped up and did the right thing...he told the owner of the generator his company would repair or replace the generator for him because of what his ex-employees did
So...Yes, I along with lots of cops I know, wish more motorists out there would arm themselves with Dash-Cams. It's a total mystery why it never caught on here, but I suspect it will real soon thanks to Forums like this.
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