After having two nice cars totaled recently by distracted young drivers, I am outfitting all my cars with dashcams, with the high value vehicles getting them front & rear
In one collision, the fault was obvious, the other driver was cited and I was paid by their insurance company.
But the pay-out only covered the basic cost of the vehicle and in no way covered all the time/expense I had into maintaining, upgrading and customizing the vehicle at a high level, the many hours I spent dealing with this, or the risk of serious injury that the distratcted driver exposed me to.
In the other collision, no citations were issued because I couldn't prove that the young driver that t-boned me at 50MPH actually ran the red light and I'm out ~$25,000 for my vehicle, ~$70K for medical and an untold cost to my career.
What I learned is that, even if you are faultless, the insurance structure never covers you for the full cost of someone else's negligence.
The dashcams, cards, converters and installation are costing me about $1000.
While the gear would pay for itself after one collision to my cars, I'd like to recover the real costs of this gear if I happen to record someone else's accident.
I know I would have happily paid 10x that cost for clear video footage of the 2nd collision.
For me and I'm sure others here, time is real money and, each collision took hours at the scene to sort things out.
So, while I am a very nice and compassionate person, I am very reluctant to get entangled in other people's messes.
I would like to develop a simple, legally correct, form to hand to the involved parties saying that:
- the dashcam video content of the incident is copyright and owned by me,
- the content is available to law-enforcement entities for free,
- the content is available for review by involved parties or their representatives for $1000 each,
- the video content may not be copied, shared or redistributed,
- the content access cost increases to $2500 if subpoenaed as evidence since I may need to consult legal counsel,
- video content not related to the incident is not available,
- not at fault parties will be reimbursed their access cost.
So, does such a form already exist? If not, are there other items I should be including?
The alternative is that I simply don't get involved; I just drive on and spend my very limited free time with my kids or consulting at $500/hr, but the innocent drivers suffer.
In one collision, the fault was obvious, the other driver was cited and I was paid by their insurance company.
But the pay-out only covered the basic cost of the vehicle and in no way covered all the time/expense I had into maintaining, upgrading and customizing the vehicle at a high level, the many hours I spent dealing with this, or the risk of serious injury that the distratcted driver exposed me to.
In the other collision, no citations were issued because I couldn't prove that the young driver that t-boned me at 50MPH actually ran the red light and I'm out ~$25,000 for my vehicle, ~$70K for medical and an untold cost to my career.
What I learned is that, even if you are faultless, the insurance structure never covers you for the full cost of someone else's negligence.
The dashcams, cards, converters and installation are costing me about $1000.
While the gear would pay for itself after one collision to my cars, I'd like to recover the real costs of this gear if I happen to record someone else's accident.
I know I would have happily paid 10x that cost for clear video footage of the 2nd collision.
For me and I'm sure others here, time is real money and, each collision took hours at the scene to sort things out.
So, while I am a very nice and compassionate person, I am very reluctant to get entangled in other people's messes.
I would like to develop a simple, legally correct, form to hand to the involved parties saying that:
- the dashcam video content of the incident is copyright and owned by me,
- the content is available to law-enforcement entities for free,
- the content is available for review by involved parties or their representatives for $1000 each,
- the video content may not be copied, shared or redistributed,
- the content access cost increases to $2500 if subpoenaed as evidence since I may need to consult legal counsel,
- video content not related to the incident is not available,
- not at fault parties will be reimbursed their access cost.
So, does such a form already exist? If not, are there other items I should be including?
The alternative is that I simply don't get involved; I just drive on and spend my very limited free time with my kids or consulting at $500/hr, but the innocent drivers suffer.