Can A Dash Cam Prove My Innocence in a Vehicle Accident?
Posted by Todd Morris on May 2nd 2024
Can A Dash Cam Prove My Innocence in a Vehicle Accident?
Key Takeaways:
- Dash cams can support claims of innocence in vehicle accidents, especially in cases like hit-and-runs or road rage incidents.
- Dash cam provide valuable visual evidence to assist in insurance claims and legal proceedings.
- Dash cams can prevent insurance fraud by documenting the actual events and preventing inflated claims.
- Businesses benefit from dash cams in fleet vehicles to reduce fraud and monitor driver behavior.
- Choosing the right dash cam model is crucial to ensure it captures relevant footage effectively based on the vehicle and use case.
Dash cams have become part of life in many parts of the world. Here in the United States, where the insurance industry uses more advanced investigative methods and the police take insurance fraud seriously, the use of dash cams is less common, but can still be helpful for proving your innocence in an accident or for showing someone else’s guilt.
A Dash Cam Can Support Your Claim
A dash cam is rarely used as the only evidence in an insurance case. Unless it clearly shows someone else's guilt, it will be taken as part of the totality of the evidence.
However, if your claim of innocence is based on something that someone else did, a dash cam can show their activity. In many accidents, the fault can be difficult to establish. Everyone remembers everything differently and, often, to their own advantage.
When the Car Camera Provides the Most Accurate Evidence
There are several occasions when the dash cam video can be a primary component of the evidence of an event.
- Hit and run - Having a video of a hit and run can help police to track that person down. With today’s HD cameras, it’s possible to see everything, from the license plate number to the driver's face. The video could be used as the primary evidence against an individual.
- Visual evidence of the event - In some cases, there will be a difference of understanding of the sequence of events. A car camera can show what happened and everything that went into an accident. Since most accidents take place in just seconds and it’s hard for the human brain to remember those events clearly, a dash cam can be a good way to sort out the events.
- Reporting bad drivers - If you find yourself following a drunk driver or an aggressive driver, your dash cam might provide authorities with video evidence of the events and proof of the other person’s conduct. Rather than confronting them, you can provide the police with your video as proof of the behavior of the other person.
- Insurance fraud prevention - Sometimes people will over inflate the damage of an accident or try to pretend that they were more injured than they really were. A car camera can make it easier to see what really happened and how.
- Road rage incidents - If you witness a road rage incident, a car camera can help to give authorities the evidence that they need against someone who is committing a violent act. Similar to the cell phone video that has been used to convict people, this video can be very helpful for authorities to stop someone who has a problem stopping themselves.
- The violence of an accident - Cars are safer than ever, but that doesn’t reduce the violence of a car accident for the people inside. An accident that does very little damage to the car can be devastating to the people inside. The shaking and jolts can cause whiplash and spinal injuries. The video from a dash cam, when presented to a jury in an injury case can provide different perspective of how harsh an accident can be.
Choosing the Right Car Camera
They are many models of best car cameras on the market. At Brickhouse Security, we offer a number of different brands, each with its own features. Choosing the right camera is more than a matter of taste; the wrong camera might capture very little based on the design of the vehicle.
Dash Cams for Fleet Vehicles
One of the applications that can be most important for a car camera is use in fleet vehicles. Any company with a number of vehicles on the road can benefit from having cameras in them.
Commercial vehicles are particularly vulnerable to insurance fraud since the “bad guys” see companies as having deep pockets or at least great insurance. Dash cams can help to prove that an accident was not the fault of your driver.
The other side of that coin is the drivers who do things that they shouldn’t in and with your vehicles. At BrickHouse Security, we offer cameras that will show what’s going on outside of a vehicle, but we also have some cameras that can show you what happens inside of the vehicle. We offer a phone charger plugin that has USB outlets for phones and also has a hidden camera. This will record what happens inside of a vehicle. It’s a device that’s also perfect for parents of teenagers.
Car Cameras Can Make the Road Safer
The world is a busy, chaotic place. Even if everyone is doing their best to avoid accidents, sometimes thing happen. A car camera can help to show what really happened and keep innocent people from paying for something they didn’t do.