Woman crashes into car - blames other driver

[DashCamMan]

Woman smashes into another car than proceeds to blame the other driver. Police don't watch the dash cam video, believe the woman and charge the innocent driver.

Full Story Here

 

[Paul Schmehl]

I think in a situation like that, I would calmly exchange insurance information without discussing the details of the accident. Then, after we had exchanged information, I would simply inform her that the entire accident was recorded on video with sound, and I would be submitting that to her insurance company along with my claim for damages.

 

[Mozzie]

This is exactly why dashcams are becoming more popular. The other driver was not paying attention and just followed the other car.

Also, it is probably not a good idea to reveal there is a video immediately in case they try to steal it or change there story.

 

[Paul Schmehl]

This is exactly why dashcams are becoming more popular. The other driver was not paying attention and just followed the other car.

Also, it is probably not a good idea to reveal there is a video immediately in case they try to steal it or change there story.

Thanks for that advice. I hadn't thought of that aspect of it.

This brings up a question. The camera I ordered (Ddpai M6+) does not have a screen. Can an iPhone view raw dash cam videos? If so, I could by a micro SD card reader for the iPhone and use it to review video immediately after an accident.

Meh. I just remembered. I can download or preview the videos on my iPhone using the wifi built in to the cam. Never mind.

 

[randy]

Thanks for that advice. I hadn't thought of that aspect of it.

This brings up a question. The camera I ordered (Ddpai M6+) does not have a screen. Can an iPhone view raw dash cam videos? If so, I could by a micro SD card reader for the iPhone and use it to review video immediately after an accident.

Meh. I just remembered. I can download or preview the videos on my iPhone using the wifi built in to the cam. Never mind.

What was the charge? The only way I see police charging the wrong person here is if an independent witness came forward and said the lady turning had a green arrow....other than that the worst you're looking at is the cop saying its your word against theirs. I heard a guy yelling that she (the one turning I think) had the right of way. Maybe it was the guy turning before her... maybe he knew her and lied...who knows.
I would def file a police report and if it came down to me being blamed and catching a charge, I would just tell them at that point that I likely have video of it....providing that my camera is working.
I have an OTG reader (On The Go) that I keep in my jeep. It has slots for cards and flash drives and you can just pop it in your phone...pretty cheap to.

 

[dash riposki]

Did I hear a racial slur being screamed by a male 'witness'???? At :0.56

 

[randy]

Did I hear a racial slur being screamed by a male 'witness'???? At :0.56

I just heard him saying it was this guys fault twice...didn't hear anything like that

 

[dash riposki]

'You little spic' ???????

 

[randy]

'You little spic' ???????

Maybe I'm deaf but I didn't hear it. I just hear the guy says it was "this guys fault", "this persons fault"

 

[dash riposki]

'It's this guys fault. You little spic'

 

[flank]

So white privilege is real after all

 

[randy]

So white privilege is real after all

Okay so you hear it to? I may need a hearing aid but I still dont hear it...Im trying to hear right at 56 secs in with headphones to

 

[kamkar]

I would be mum saying nothing at all, then the other part can do what ever it please to undermine its own credibility.

BUT off course for this to work you got to have a dashcam that is trustworthy.

 

[erkme73]

Think this through... What's going to happen (at least in the states) once the accident scene clears, tickets are issued, and everyone is on their way? The innocent guy with the ticket has to take time off of work to go to court. Assuming his video evidence is admitted (there may be evidentiary objections by the court), and you have an open-minded judge/magistrate, the BEST results are that that the ticket is dismissed. The ACTUAL guilty party will not suddenly be charged with causing the accident. It'll simply be a no-fault, or equal-fault finding by the insurance company.

Hopefully the cammer's insurance company will subrogate the claim with the truly at-fault driver's insurance. But that happens behind the scenes, and the cammer has no way to make sure this happens.

As I see it (and perhaps I'm wrong), the ONLY way to make sure the proper person is ticketed is AT THE MOMENT THE CITATIONS ARE ISSUED. While you can fight YOUR ticket in court at a later date, it will not do anything to make sure the responsible person is held accountable.

Edited to add: What are the chances the cop, who so was so clearly derelict at doing his job, will see any consequence for this - let alone even be told how wrong he was? Without accountability (i.e. real consequences for doing a piss-poor job), there will be no incentive to do their job the RIGHT way. In any other profession, you screw up this bad, you're canned, sued, or at least reprimanded.

 

[kamkar]

Also proof, don't carry a apple product, or if you do at least have some form of external card reader, us android users can just pop card in phone right then and there and be done with it.

 

[Paul Schmehl]

@randy, thanks for the tip on the OTG reader. Even though I can preview the videos (or download them) on my iPhone, it's good to have a backup in case things go south.

 

[randy]

Think this through... What's going to happen (at least in the states) once the accident scene clears, tickets are issued, and everyone is on their way? The innocent guy with the ticket has to take time off of work to go to court. Assuming his video evidence is admitted (there may be evidentiary objections by the court), and you have an open-minded judge/magistrate, the BEST results are that that the ticket is dismissed. The ACTUAL guilty party will not suddenly be charged with causing the accident. It'll simply be a no-fault, or equal-fault finding by the insurance company.

Hopefully the cammer's insurance company will subrogate the claim with the truly at-fault driver's insurance. But that happens behind the scenes, and the cammer has no way to make sure this happens.

As I see it (and perhaps I'm wrong), the ONLY way to make sure the proper person is ticketed is AT THE MOMENT THE CITATIONS ARE ISSUED. While you can fight YOUR ticket in court at a later date, it will not do anything to make sure the responsible person is held accountable.

Edited to add: What are the chances the cop, who so was so clearly derelict at doing his job, will see any consequence for this - let alone even be told how wrong he was? Without accountability (i.e. real consequences for doing a piss-poor job), there will be no incentive to do their job the RIGHT way. In any other profession, you screw up this bad, you're canned, sued, or at least reprimanded.

"who so was so clearly derelict at doing his job" "there will be no incentive to do their job the RIGHT way"

Wow! your first statements were very on point until your edit which was nonsense. You really have ZERO facts in regards to how the police handled this situation...so "clearly derelict" is an absurd statement. Cops ARE held accountable for their actions by law (civil and criminal) and department policy. By and large police are acting within the confines of law and policy, but people cant quite comprehend how it is they are. I have simply never seen a profession that is so judged based on misinformation and bias, stereotyped, and just plain judged without knowing all the details. We hang them out to dry in the court of public opinion as soon as any idiot makes whatever claim without due process or any attempt to understand their actions...but they are sooo important to this world. Support our police as they have a tough/important job and are human just like you and me.
But lets be clear, if you are wronged by the police....you simply have rights and ways to challenge them...video (not just dashcams), complaints, rights afforded by the constitution and case law etc.
sorry for a whole lot of response, but these are my thoughts and I feel strongly about them.

 

[erkme73]

Wow! your first statements were very on point until your edit which was nonsense. You really have ZERO facts in regards to how the police handled this situation...so "clearly derelict" is an absurd statement. Cops ARE held accountable for their actions by law (civil and criminal) and department policy. By and large police are acting within the confines of law and policy, but people cant quite comprehend how it is they are. I have simply never seen a profession that is so judged based on misinformation and bias, stereotyped, and just plain judged without knowing all the details. We hang them out to dry in the court of public opinion as soon as any idiot makes whatever claim without due process or any attempt to understand their actions...but they are sooo important to this world. Support our police as they have a tough/important job and are human just like you and me.
But lets be clear, if you are wronged by the police....you simply have rights and ways to challenge them...video (not just dashcams), complaints, rights afforded by the constitution and case law etc.
sorry for a whole lot of response, but these are my thoughts and I feel strongly about them.

Admittedly, it's a small personal sample, but I have multiple immediate family members who work in law enforcement. I see and hear first hand how they are protected when things go sideways. Whether it's their partners that will defend them (or lie for them) to the end, the local media that treads lightly (they want their exclusives from the department), the local prosecutors who have to work hand-in-glove with those that patrol the streets, the judges who must rely on the testimony of their officers, or the bullet proof union that makes even the simplest of disciplinary actions (a letter of counseling) comparable to an act of congress.

I'm not anti-LEO. I'm anti lack of accountability. Those that enforce the law ought to be held to a much higher (if not the highest) standard. When an officer is found to have violated the law, departmental policy, or the rights of others, why do you think no fellow cop will report it? Why do you think LEOs, as a whole, have such disdain and malice for Internal Affairs (or Bureau of Professional Standards). Because police culture demands absolute trust between officers - and any officer willing to break that trust by reporting a fellow blue commits career suicide. That fraternity breeds an environment for abuse, and feeling of invincibility. All of my family LEOs candidly admit they fear no consequence for speeding in their personal vehicles. They just 'flash tin' and it's 'have a nice day'. THAT is the problem.

As to this specific incident, you're right. We have only one side of the story. The video is unarguably proof that the cammer DID NOT violate the law. If, in fact, the driver offered to show the video to the officer, and having refused to view it, he was still cited, then what plausible excuse could you muster up to defend the outcome? Perhaps the video was NOT offered to the cop, sure. But baring any evidence to the contrary, I'm erring on the side of the cammer's description. Again, having regular involvement with my LEO family members (and their partners, etc), as well as personal interactions with cops elsewhere, I can completely relate to the LEO mindset at a crash scene. They're are the authority figure. They are the law. They are in charge. If they are not interested in something, they will shut it down immediately.

Again, I'm after accountability.

 

[kamkar]

Being anti LEO is a pretty stupid thing to be, most ppl that swing that way have no idea what the hell they are talking about.
But off course a LEO have to be accountable too, otherwise its almost as bad if not worse than a society having no LEOs

And if you don't believe me there is still plenty of countries around the world where you can see the result of having no LEOs or LEOs that dont work or is not accountable.

I think those countries is usually referred to as Third world cesspools, and you do not want to go there if your country have moved on from that state as many countries have done.

 

[erkme73]

Being anti LEO is a pretty stupid thing to be, most ppl that swing that way have no idea what the hell they are talking about.
But off course a LEO have to be accountable too, otherwise its almost as bad if not worse than a society having no LEOs

And if you don't believe me there is still plenty of countries around the world where you can see the result of having no LEOs or LEOs that dont work or is not accountable.

I think those countries is usually referred to as Third world cesspools, and you do not want to go there if your country have moved on from that state as many countries have done.

And that's an important distinction. Whenever I express my views on LEOs it's almost immediately taken by the pro-LEO group that I'm cop-bashing, or anti-cop. Quite the contrary. No policing = anarchy. The problem is, you cannot discuss the REASON for needing more accountability without giving examples of bad behavior - and that immediately raises the defense mechanism of those who blindly support LEOs.

I regularly catch local LEOs driving out-of-jurisdiction patrol cars well in excess of the posted speed limits - where it is extremely unlikely their speed is justified. I have at least a dozen videos that I post to YouTube, and then send the link to the supervisor at the corresponding PD. It's not as much that I'm out to get cops in trouble as it is helping clean up their image. The last half-dozen or so videos have all been UNLISTED, so that only the appropriate PD can view it. They don't show up on my YT channel, and my subscribers are not notified of the upload. If my intent was to give the PD a black eye, I would make the videos public (something I used to do before I realized the difference between public and unlisted). If, and only if, I feel I'm getting the runaround, or there's some BS excuse that doesn't pass the sniff test, will I post them publicly now. As a result of these actions, I see, first hand, just how hard it is to get ANY disciplinary action taken against those 'few bad apples'.

But kamkar, to your point of lawlessness being a third-world issue... remember, the pendulum swings the other way too - where an excessive amount of policing becomes a police state. Each time I see a video of a trivial infraction (broken tail light, illegal lane change), and it turns out the thing that got the driver arrested was 'contempt of cop' - or simply questioning the cop - I'm reminded of this priceless gem:

"The freedom of individuals verbally to oppose or challenge police action without thereby risking arrest is one of the principal characteristics by which we distinguish a free nation from a police state." -- The U.S. Supreme Court, June 15, 1987