Car Dash Cam – Good or Bad Idea?

As many of you know, our law firm specializes in handling motor vehicle accidents. We have handled accident cases for the past 20 plus years. Over that time span we have seen a few car crash cases where one of the people involved in the crash had a dash camera set up to video what is happening in front of the car. These devices are similar to what our police have in their patrol cars. It can be a good device to consider purchasing in case you are in a car crash and the other car disputes how the crash occurred.

For example, in a recent case we handled our client had a car dash camera in her car. She was sitting at a red traffic light waiting for the left hand turn arrow to turn green. Traffic in the opposite direction was also waiting for the green light. Our client’s red left turn arrow turned to green and she began to make a legal left hand turn. The defendant’s car heading in the opposite direction thought he had a green light to proceed straight (his direction of traffic ONLY had a green left TURN arrow). While our client was making her legal left turn, the defendant illegally ran his red light and crash into our client’s car causing serious property damage and physical injury to our client. The dash cam video showed our client’s left green turn arrow and the rest of the traffic heading in defendants direction remaining stopped at the red traffic light. Thus, it was clear who ran the red light at was at fault for the crash – the DEFENDANT!!!

Relying on the defendant’s statement that our client ran a red light, the insurance company DENIED the claim stating that our client made an illegal left hand turn and was the cause of the crash.

Our client’s car dash camera was the PERFECT evidence. We presented the video to the defendant’s insurance company and they, almost immediately, accepted liability for the crash and we were able to resolve our client’s case to her satisfaction.

The questions become are dash cameras good to have? Should everyone have one? Should our cars be equipped with them? Would you use one of these? Anyone have a brand they recommend? Are they too intrusive into our privacy rights?

We welcome your thoughts and opinions. Feel free to call us at 561-266-9191 or email us at daronberg@build.simple.biz.

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