What is the worst thing ever happened to you and your dashcam?

PeteTheGreek

PeteTheGreek

Active Member
Joined
Apr 20, 2022
Messages
110
Reaction score
49
Location
Warrington
Country
United Kingdom
A few years ago I was driving through Liverpool (Beatle City) in England with my wife. It was mid afternoon and we had just found a nice pub at the edge of a roundabout.
As I manoeuvred around the three lane roundabout a car to my left lost control, crashing into the steel barriers. I braked, exiting my car as the drivers side door opened on the crashed car. Emerging from the car, an elderly man.
At first I thought he was injured as he staggered about but I soon realised he was drunk.
An hour or so later and the pathway behind the collapsed rails would have been filled with kids on way home from school.
Snatching the dashcam from its Mount I began filming as several men ran out from the beer garden.
Within a minute or so the men were helping the man. Then they turned on me. One of the men snatched the cam from my hand. "Why are you filming this mate, we don't do that to our own"! He shouted.
It turned out they knew the man and were planing his escape.
My wife exited the car and cooled the situation by telling the guy to remove the sd card.
He did and passed her back the cam.
We got in the car and moved off just as the police appeared and got the lot of them.
Was one of the scariest things we have ever experienced. Stupid on my part but I wasn't about to let a drunken driver walk.

***What's your story? ***
 
Wow... Interesting story Pete!

Here in the U.S., in almost any calamity, everyone has their cell phones out and are recording. - They won't help, but they sure will record their videos!

That being said, one has to be very careful when outright recording... If someone has done something wrong/against the law, they probably do NOT want to be on video... like you experienced there in Liverpool. - - Btw what are the beatles... /s
 
About five years ago I was almost side-swiped four times over the course of a year. I wasn't in their blind spot either. If they bothered to check around their car before trying to change lanes, then they would have seen me out their driver's door window. One of the times I had to cut my steering really hard to move onto the shoulder to prevent them from hitting me. I almost went into the median, but was able to course correct before that happened.

Another time I merged onto a highway in front of a semi truck. A lady merged behind right after me, but the trucker didn't see her. He kept moving forward and slowly pushed her car into the back of my car. I put my hazard lights on and he stopped. All three of us pulled off onto the should to check for damage, which there wasn't any, and then went on our way.

Unfortunately, all of this was before I had a dash cam. Ultimately, they helped motivate me to get one.
 
thomas-dash said:
About five years ago I was almost side-swiped four times over the course of a year. I wasn't in their blind spot either. If they bothered to check around their car before trying to change lanes, then they would have seen me out their driver's door window. One of the times I had to cut my steering really hard to move onto the shoulder to prevent them from hitting me. I almost went into the median, but was able to course correct before that happened.

Another time I merged onto a highway in front of a semi truck. A lady merged behind right after me, but the trucker didn't see her. He kept moving forward and slowly pushed her car into the back of my car. I put my hazard lights on and he stopped. All three of us pulled off onto the should to check for damage, which there wasn't any, and then went on our way.

Unfortunately, all of this was before I had a dash cam. Ultimately, they helped motivate me to get one.
Click to expand...

Dashcam = unbiased witness. Invaluable when I got hit (two different occasions). I take a spare front cam with me any time I must rent a vehicle or am not in my own car driving.

Never leave home without it!
 
Never admit that you have a dash cam. Most accidents are pretty obvious when it comes down to who was at fault. For me it would be the last resort.
Take a picture of the scene, damage and insurance cards and let the cops and insurance company to figure it out.
 
One night my brother was coming home from work when he come across a near fatal RTC (4 way junction collision rear passenger ended up with a brain bleed) when trying to review the dash cam footage I noticed the clip of him leaving work was only about 40 seconds and the next clip was him getting back in the car once the emergency services had arrived and were helping, of course the cam was an old dinky nextbase 402G with motion detection enabled (wasnt informed on dash cams at the time, just bought a cheapo and stuck it on the windscreen)
 
Caught on dashcam a car pulling out of side road and hitting car travelling along main road. Culprit drove off. Police car parked just passed junction so on scene immediately but did not witness crash. No problem I said as have it all on dashcam and as have rear camera should also pick up registration of culprit. Officer asked to see footage but as a Thinkware F800 Pro no viewing screen and would not connect to my phone to view. No problem I said I can download and send it in when I get home. Officer took my contact details and said they would be in touch. Got home and, as removing SD card, inadvertently hit the format button having forgotten to power down the dashcam!!! Police have not yet been in touch and as it is now over 6 weeks since the incident hopefully they won’t. Who designs a dashcam with format button right below SD card slot and no audible warning of impending format - Thinkware do!
 
lacibaci said:
Never admit that you have a dash cam. Most accidents are pretty obvious when it comes down to who was at fault. For me it would be the last resort.
Take a picture of the scene, damage and insurance cards and let the cops and insurance company to figure it out.
Click to expand...
All well and good if all involved have good memories and remain at scene but occasionally the person to blame scarpers before anyone gets their details plus dashcam footage is accurate and not prone to lying.
 
9411john said:
Caught on dashcam a car pulling out of side road and hitting car travelling along main road. Culprit drove off. Police car parked just passed junction so on scene immediately but did not witness crash. No problem I said as have it all on dashcam and as have rear camera should also pick up registration of culprit. Officer asked to see footage but as a Thinkware F800 Pro no viewing screen and would not connect to my phone to view. No problem I said I can download and send it in when I get home. Officer took my contact details and said they would be in touch. Got home and, as removing SD card, inadvertently hit the format button having forgotten to power down the dashcam!!! Police have not yet been in touch and as it is now over 6 weeks since the incident hopefully they won’t. Who designs a dashcam with format button right below SD card slot and no audible warning of impending format - Thinkware do!
Click to expand...

A format doesn't necessarily destroy the footage. Scan the SD card with recovery software. All deleting does is add a flag to remove the files. Data isn't truly removed until it's overwritten and may be easily recovered.
 
DashCamDelight said:
A format doesn't necessarily destroy the footage. Scan the SD card with recovery software. All deleting does is add a flag to remove the files. Data isn't truly removed until it's overwritten and may be easily recovered.
Click to expand...
Yes I appreciate that and did, in fact, attempt recovery. Unfortunately because of size of SD card and consequent number of files recovered and the fact that recovery software gives no indication of date/time files were originally recorded I decided that I could not expend the effort or time to try and find the relevant files. I retained card for a couple of weeks so police could have it if necessary but having heard nothing further I reused it.
 
DashCamDelight said:
A format doesn't necessarily destroy the footage. Scan the SD card with recovery software. All deleting does is add a flag to remove the files. Data isn't truly removed until it's overwritten and may be easily recovered.
Click to expand...
Hi.
What you have said is really important for people to know. There is free software online for sd card recovery.
I have used it and it definitely works.
 
StrayCam said:
Wow... Interesting story Pete!

Here in the U.S., in almost any calamity, everyone has their cell phones out and are recording. - They won't help, but they sure will record their videos!

That being said, one has to be very careful when outright recording... If someone has done something wrong/against the law, they probably do NOT want to be on video... like you experienced there in Liverpool. - - Btw what are the beatles... /s
Click to expand...
Oh no!
Please tell me you know the Beatles.
They were the biggest most sensational pop band from the 60s.
Thats like me saying what's Elvis :)
 
Oh, I know Elvis... the king, right? . And of course I know the Beatles too! My notation /s meant I was turning off my sarcasm... lol

This is off topic for this thread, but a real good documentary/film to check out is "Searching for Sugarman"... about a musician (singer/songwriter/guitarist) from the late 60's, early 70's who was more popular in S. Africa than Elvis Presley. But here's the kicker: He didn't know he was famous in S. Africa! (Pre-Internet)

 
PeteTheGreek said:
Hi.
What you have said is really important for people to know. There is free software online for sd card recovery.
I have used it and it definitely works.
Click to expand...

Precisely. People often think deleted is "gone for ever". The best thing one can do after data loss is immediately discontinue using the item to prevent overwrites that may in fact destroy / corrupt the item deleted!

Sounds like in @9411john case, the police never followed up so he felt the need to expel further energy on recovery wasn't worth the trouble. Although, I personally would have undertaken the initiative to show friends / family / people online the usefulness of dash cameras.

People I encounter seem impressed or amazed you'd want to film your driving. I explain it has nothing to do with filming my driving, as it is to protect myself against other drivers. As my camera has now successfully done twice.
 
Last edited:
Can't relate the specifics as I've forgotten, but on a few occasions I've found video I wanted to not be there from SD cards dying, problems with cam powering, malfunctioning cams, and cams which needed more frequent card formatting than I gave them. Nothing of great importance lost, just lessons to use good cans installed well, and to keep an eye on things maintaining them regularly.

My "worst events" are a bit embarrassing involving me breaking things I shouldn't have broken- again lessons have been learned.

Phil
 
My 'worst' is very tame compared to reading these tales, but on we go. 2 come to mind....

1) A bin wagon was taking a turn at a crossroads coming in my direction. The lane isn't the widest but there's room enough for 2 people to pass each other providing you're not an idiot and you give room to other road users (in other words, stay in your lane). I was tucked over to the left but as I see him getting closer I see him driving at an angle, not straight & his angle is actually towards me. As he gets closer I think he's going to hit me & then clip - that's the wing mirror gone (for the pedantic I know it's not an actual 'wing' mirror). I get out, pick it up, jump in & spin it round & give chase.
Looking back on the footage he'd actually turned in to a side bit to collect bins from a local business & i'd shot on in anger so totally missed him.

I actually got the reg plate & contacted the company, sending them the footage where you can quite clearly hear the clipping sound & then you see me give chase.

"No evidence of impact" they said .... presumably because the camera was not pointed facing my mirror.

The guy (I was looking at him as he came towards me & thought he looks pretty similar to a mate of mine) actually would come in to my place of work to empty the bins & had been doing for a while. I replied to them - no problem, I know where your man is on Tuesday's at around 5:15pm so we'll see what he's got to say about it shall we.

That guy never did do that bin collection after that. It was someone else.


2) Mio Mivue 618 camera. I was on the motorway & as I was about to get off, there was this idiot who had been absolutely nailing it down the middle lane & left it until literal last second to get off but swung it right in front of me nearly taking my front end out.
I pop the SD card in the PC when I get home only to find that the entire drive hadn't been recorded. If i remember right, my drive to work that day HAD been, my drive to the gym HADN'T been and then my drive from the gym home HAD. Looking through the history there were the occasional journeys that hadn't been recorded.

Ended up sending the cam back to Mio and IIRC they replaced the motherboard i think.


Wife has the 698 which is essentially the same, just a dual setup. There will occasionally be with hers, times where she sets off & it'll sometimes not start recording until she's down the road. Other times it'll record straight away.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top