You record an accident. What do you do?

Nanook

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Hi, new guy here. So cool to have found this site, and in its infancy, too. Been lurking for a week or so and my first dash cam, a DVR-027, should arrive any day. Very excited; you never know what interesting things will happen on the streets of LA. ;)

Which leads me to my question: in most of the videos of accidents (mostly Russian) I have been obsessively watching, when there was no obvious injury to people, the driver with the cam usually just drives away. I understand if you really are in a hurry for something vital, but I think I'd want to stop and exchange information as a witness and offer the footage, which I'm sure the party in the right would be most appreciative for. Maybe in Russia they just assume everyone has a dash cam and their footage would be better posted on youtube, rather than given to an involved party? But in the US, I'd say hardly anyone has a dash cam (yet).

What would you do or what have you done? Am I being a buttinsky or a good Samaritan?
 
I'd offer the footage if it seemed serious, minor stuff I wouldn't bother I don't think

Russia is every man for himself on the roads, stopping to help could lead to bigger problems, cameras are very common also anyway
 
Russia is a country of scam artists, thieves and liars. Nobody stops at accidents because they could be blamed, even if they were not involved. Waiting for the police is not a good idea either as there is a good chance that they will be drunk and demand a bribe to let you go. If you have watched a lot of those Russian videos, you'll see that everyone drives drunk, including police and military.
 
I have submitted many a recording and provided the evidence to police which has been used in court to convict offenders.

The type of offence or seriousness of the crime can be vetted by the officer at your local police station, for minor stuff I leave it be.. for serious gear such as hit and runs, driving with undue care, or anything involving a collision or acts to endanger life are downloaded from the camera and submitted to police for their review - all footage that i have provided have led to a court case, which I might add... haven't required me to attend in person since video footage is irrefutable and the police are the persons pressing charges.

My advice is to download any footage to your PC/MAC and then burn it as a DVD since most police stations and courts can play DVD's.
 
Milamber said:
I have submitted many a recording and provided the evidence to police which has been used in court to convict offenders.

The type of offence or seriousness of the crime can be vetted by the officer at your local police station, for minor stuff I leave it be.. for serious gear such as hit and runs, driving with undue care, or anything involving a collision or acts to endanger life are downloaded from the camera and submitted to police for their review - all footage that i have provided have led to a court case, which I might add... haven't required me to attend in person since video footage is irrefutable and the police are the persons pressing charges.

My advice is to download any footage to your PC/MAC and then burn it as a DVD since most police stations and courts can play DVD's.

I've never done anything like that, tempted to sometimes, was out in the car yesterday, pulled up at a red light in the left lane waiting to turn left, stupid kid (red P plater) in a Commodore behind me decides not to wait and goes around me and straight through the red light turning left from the right lane, ready for a Darwin award that kid
 
jokiin said:
Milamber said:
I have submitted many a recording and provided the evidence to police which has been used in court to convict offenders.

The type of offence or seriousness of the crime can be vetted by the officer at your local police station, for minor stuff I leave it be.. for serious gear such as hit and runs, driving with undue care, or anything involving a collision or acts to endanger life are downloaded from the camera and submitted to police for their review - all footage that i have provided have led to a court case, which I might add... haven't required me to attend in person since video footage is irrefutable and the police are the persons pressing charges.

My advice is to download any footage to your PC/MAC and then burn it as a DVD since most police stations and courts can play DVD's.

I've never done anything like that, tempted to sometimes, was out in the car yesterday, pulled up at a red light in the left lane waiting to turn left, stupid kid (red P plater) in a Commodore behind me decides not to wait and goes around me and straight through the red light turning left from the right lane, ready for a Darwin award that kid

Yep, that is the kinda thing I would submit - since the driver is going to injure someone if he continues to drive with neglect.

* Driving with undue care
* Failing to stop at a red light
* Failing to give way at an intersection
* Lane Splitting
* last but probably not least driving a commodore!

What state are you in? and does the camera show his registration plate?
 
As long as your locale allows the owner of the car to be held responsible for all infractions. My area does not. That is why there is no photo radar here. You need to prove who was driving to press charges
 
horsepower said:
As long as your locale allows the owner of the car to be held responsible for all infractions. My area does not. That is why there is no photo radar here. You need to prove who was driving to press charges

In the state of NSW, the registered owner of the vehicle needs to prove that they were not the driver at the time of the alleged offence. If this person can't prove this, then charges are laid... think of it like this, if there was a hit and run involving a vehicle vs pedestrian and the registration plate was identified by witnesses, the owner of that vehicle would be investigated by police and charges would be laid and quiet rightly so too.
 
I much prefer that system as well.
 
Milamber said:
jokiin said:
Milamber said:
I have submitted many a recording and provided the evidence to police which has been used in court to convict offenders.

The type of offence or seriousness of the crime can be vetted by the officer at your local police station, for minor stuff I leave it be.. for serious gear such as hit and runs, driving with undue care, or anything involving a collision or acts to endanger life are downloaded from the camera and submitted to police for their review - all footage that i have provided have led to a court case, which I might add... haven't required me to attend in person since video footage is irrefutable and the police are the persons pressing charges.

My advice is to download any footage to your PC/MAC and then burn it as a DVD since most police stations and courts can play DVD's.

I've never done anything like that, tempted to sometimes, was out in the car yesterday, pulled up at a red light in the left lane waiting to turn left, stupid kid (red P plater) in a Commodore behind me decides not to wait and goes around me and straight through the red light turning left from the right lane, ready for a Darwin award that kid

Yep, that is the kinda thing I would submit - since the driver is going to injure someone if he continues to drive with neglect.

* Driving with undue care
* Failing to stop at a red light
* Failing to give way at an intersection
* Lane Splitting
* last but probably not least driving a commodore!

What state are you in? and does the camera show his registration plate?

NSW, I haven't looked at the footage from the main cam (I had 3 cams on at the time) but I'm sure I'd have the plate clearly, might have a look at it later though, did look at the footage from the two other cams already
 
you inspired me to have a look at the main cam, yes have him quite clearly going through the red, number plate and all
 
Jeez, I hadn't even thought about the criminal aspects of it. Considering Los Angeles recently removed all of its red light cameras, which do capture the driver's face, I wonder what bearing, if any, dash cam footage of an offense would have here? I was just thinking about insurance settlements. I've never been found liable for any accident I've been in, but if I were, especially falsely, I would love for some random person come up with some footage of the accident.

I totally get the Russian deal. Of course, if someone is likely injured, they almost always pull over in the videos. And every once in a while you'll see a guy stop his car and help an old lady cross the street. D'aawwww.
 
jokiin said:
you inspired me to have a look at the main cam, yes have him quite clearly going through the red, number plate and all

Extract the video file to PC, burn it as a DVD so the police can play it on their computer - if you have a laptop show them the footage and see if they want to follow up. The less twats on the road the better, this is a good opportunity to help remove them... he will loose his license for the actions you mentioned above as well.

Good luck!
 
We can't judge a nation and say about them that are all drunk people. In all countries in the world are bad people, accidents. They just have more cameras.
Just russian people can tell the truth about this question about them, we can make only assumptions.

Roussian youtube don't help so much because many of the are uploading videos with stupid names like amba1234 or 124861944. How to find if your accident was uploaded on youtube? How many days to search day by day and what names to search. More help is a special site or forum thread like mune with russian accidents. But I don't have all of them even in some days I have more than 20 unique/day. On my thread is no duplicate.

For example in my country just few people have cameras and we have about 1 accident/month as recorded by dashcams. Most of them if recorded some accident just tell to the not guilty driver his phone number or, better, his email if that driver need the recorder for defense. Than he will provide a download link for the file.

Because we don't like some laws or how authorities are moving, we don't want to waste our time and is much more time than you can imagine. You can stay at the accident scene hours until the police come, take declarations, bla-bla. Than if that event will go in the court you will must go there several times as witness. On your money and time. And what if the court is at 600KM? For what to go there? Some trials can go many years so you can be stressed 3-4-5 years as witness. We don't have a law if you are witness at some accident scene to not leave that scene. If the laws and authorities were right and helping me to not waste my time, OK, but with actual condition, no thanks.

For me is better to wirelessly upload the accident scene to the driver and leave the accident scene without my phone number or my email. Is his accident he must find the solution. I just want to give help, not complicate my life. But if the accident is very bad with injured people I can be more cooperantion and giving help if needed as the same way like I don't have a camera to not let some guy enter in the prison for many years even he wasn't guilty.

My short answer is: wireless (bluetooth) transfer to another driver device as smartphone. If not possible, my email and I need a easy remembering email address for that guy. My phone number I will not give. I just want to leave all the problems in that place.

enjoy,
Mtz
 
Interesting read Mtz. The rules are very different in Australia, if you leave the scene of a collision that involves yourself without exchanging details or contacting EMS then you can be prosecuted - by law you have to remain with your vehicle if injury has occurred. I have never been involved in a collision, so i'm not sure what details are required other than a drivers license - why wouldn't you want to provide your contact information and why are your police responding slowly to such incidents?
 
But you missed the most important thing:
if you are witness
I know my english is not good so I hope now is more clear.
Also our laws are very severe with people leaving the accident scene. 99% of the romanian don't leave the scene like we saw in some russian videos.

enjoy,
Mtz
 
Milamber said:
horsepower said:
As long as your locale allows the owner of the car to be held responsible for all infractions. My area does not. That is why there is no photo radar here. You need to prove who was driving to press charges

In the state of NSW, the registered owner of the vehicle needs to prove that they were not the driver at the time of the alleged offence. If this person can't prove this, then charges are laid... think of it like this, if there was a hit and run involving a vehicle vs pedestrian and the registration plate was identified by witnesses, the owner of that vehicle would be investigated by police and charges would be laid and quiet rightly so too.

Hi Milamber, would you mind updating or adding your location to your Profile, it wasn't until I read your post above that I knew where you were located.
Before that I was reluctant to answer as I had no idea where you lived and each and every country has different road rules, just as different States do.
 
Mtz said:
Also our laws are very severe with people leaving the accident scene. 99% of the romanian don't leave the scene like we saw in some russian videos.
The same for Germany. Denial of assistance/failure to render assistance in case of injuries is also a serious offence in Germany and in the Netherlands. Both offences will result in a temporary loss of the driver's license.
 
KvR said:
Mtz said:
Also our laws are very severe with people leaving the accident scene. 99% of the romanian don't leave the scene like we saw in some russian videos.
The same for Germany. Denial of assistance/failure to render assistance in case of injuries is also a serious offence in Germany and in the Netherlands. Both offences will result in a temporary loss of the driver's license.

in China if you do the same they send you to prison
 
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