Dash cams first became popular in Russia due to a kind of staged accident known as the "swoop and squat," in which a driver cuts off another vehicle and then hits the brakes to cause himself to be rear-ended by the other driver. Because drivers who rear-end other drivers are always presumed to be at fault, it's a difficult thing to defend yourself against without a camera. That's why the front-facing cameras came out first. They were to defend against this specific type of fraudulent, staged accident.
If I ever get the ambition, I might install front and rear cameras. I might also install a rear-facing monitor that allows the tailgater behind me to see himself on video. I noticed a whole ****load of tailgaters on the road today, it being the weekend of the first wave of tourists. They come up here to get away from the city, but they bring the city with them. This week were the fishermen, next week will be the college professors, the following week the elementary and high school teachers, and everyone else during the weeks that follow. And almost all of them tailgate. It's a habit one develops from driving in bumper-to-bumper downstate traffic.
What they don't get is that the relative safety afforded by our sparse traffic is offset by the constant risk of having to suddenly brake to avoid suicidal deer, bear cubs, and turkeys. (Anything smaller typically gets run over without so much as a shrug.) Almost all rear-end collisions up here are the result of someone having to stop to avoid wildlife and getting rear-ended by some idiot who was tailgating. And 99 times out of a hundred, the idiot tailgater was a tourist.
Rich
I was involved in an accident where an elderly lady nearly took the front off of my Jeep after running a red light.
(She was well over 70 and driving at night in the rain in Downtown Denver rush hour traffic to pick up her son, an attorney, who had lost his driver's license for multiple DUI, I later learned, but I digress.)
As far as the Denver PD was concerned, she was at fault, mostly because she hit and ran, which is always weighed heavily against someone.
But... The insurance company gave me all SORTS of crap for months trying to make it my fault. I had to pull dispatch tapes and write all sorts of letters explaining what they claimed happened simply wasn't possible. They kept telling me the little old lady said it happened differently and she ran because she was "scared", and the police report didn't matter and blah blah blah just enough to keep me constantly ****ed at them for three months. Which gave me motivation to screw with them, since I knew they were listening to the coached speeches her attorney/son was feeding her to keep their insurance rates down.
I guess I finally ran the investigator out of options and they finally told me begrudgingly that we were both insured by the same company, so it'd be handled as no-fault (what a joke that is!) and we'd both have rate increases.
There were also babblings of dear old mom (who got out of the car and who I chased for twelve blocks and ended up talking directly to DUI boy about her knocking the front bumper clean off my Jeep while waiting for DPD, before they got in the car and sped off) about possible injuries and blah blah blah, just to scare the insurance company into closing the whole thing up quickly.
My last letter "thanking" the investigator was to detail that I was sure that DUI-boy had coached mom very well, and the insurance company and her and her son deserved each other. I cancelled the policy the week after it was finalized and I'd never do business with them again.
Back then, cameras weren't cheap nor easy to use. But I'd have loved to have had one. Three months of Bravo Sierra in the mail and on the phone.
So it ain't just Russia where that crap happens.
Tailgaters make me insane too. Same reasons. No tourists out here though, just crazy neighbors who think they're going to get somewhere faster by speeding.
Saw one of them rolled over in the ditch on the way home today. Also saw the local volunteer FD ambulance headed to the nearest ER.
Ended up having a private text message session with the paramedic who treated the driver. She lost it during a hailstorm by not slowing down on the new $2.3M dollar 4 mile road.
I'm not heartless. I stopped and talked to what turned out to be her friend's dad who was parked on the other side of the road from the rolled Jeep. He said she was okay, and was in the ambulance I had just passed, and he was waiting on the Sheriff. I was glad she was ok.
But I'm sure she was driving too fast for conditions. It was a big standard thunderstorm plus gravel sized hail. No reason to end up in a ditch upside down over that. Slow the hell down.
Buddy said its a pain to text from the back of an ambulance -- they were on their way back to the station. He was all excited when he saw my FB post that I'd seen the rolled vehicle because he thought I might have been witness to exactly how she did it.
I said sorry, nope... I was there after you guys but before the Sheriff so I stopped to see if I could help. Didn't know they were already out of the vehicle at that point.
He said he had to go clean up the bus. I'll see him next week at an event we are both going to. He said the really bad accidents are happening north of the golf club on the dirt road up there -- I'm going to guess alcohol is involved, but of course he can't say.
Ha. Small town stuff is definitely interesting. Texting the ambulance guy of a rollover near the house. Who'd have thought I'd be doing that today? LOL.
