Does anyone have a windshield mounted video camera for their vehicle(s)? I recently bought one (using Amazon credits I’ve accumulated from various smart phone apps that pay!) and installed it in my car. I don’t have a long daily commute for work, but I have had some close calls just driving around town. It certainly will come in handy if I ever get into an accident that isn’t my fault.
Several years ago, I did have an accident which I didn’t consider to be my fault; however, I got cited for hitting a parked car, while the actual driver at fault left the scene. She didn’t hit anyone, so there was no evidence of her involvement and without a dash cam, I had no way to prove her liability. It was a 4-way stop on a narrow city street with cars parked along the curbs in both directions the entire length of the block. I was going straight approaching the stop sign and a school bus was coming from my left on the cross street ahead – turning right at her stop sign onto the block I was coming down.
Rather than allow me to proceed through to get to my stop sign (where I could have had plenty of room to pull over to the curb -- opening the lane wide open for the school bus), the bus driver just barreled right on in and would have hit me square had I not taken any action. I was trying to pull forward and around cars parked along the street to avoid getting hit by her. In the process, I clipped the front corner of the last parked car with my right rear door.
With no video or other eyewitnesses, there was no way for me to prove this. I got a ticket and fought it in court. I was able to convince the judge to dismiss the case on my citation (so no points against my license), but I still had to pay court costs and my insurance still had to cover the damages to the parked car I hit.
If only I had a dash cam at that point, I could have shown that footage to the officer who responded to my call and possibly convinced him to locate the bus driver and cite her instead of me.
I hope to avoid these situations in the future, but its good to know that I have a witness if I ever need one!