Sunday 11 June 2023
Time for a dash cam
Buzzed off early in the MX5 this morning, aiming to be back before the day became too warm for anything but loafing around in the shade.
While tootling towards the A6, three cyclists lurched out of a side road into my path. Fortunately the other side of the road was clear and I was able to veer round them. A second or two earlier and I'd probably have collided with the one who lurched out further than the others, well towards the centre of the road.
So I'll be trawling through Amazon looking for a simple dash cam. I don't know if they make much difference in the event of an accident, but it's something.
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9 comments:
One of the best add-ons I've ever bought. In the first year, it was invaluable in proving some moron reversed into me, for some reason, rather me driving into him, as he claimed. This was followed by, as happened to you, someone failed to stop, emerging from a side road. Unfortunately, there was no room to veer around it, and an insurance argument followed. In both cases, it could have ended up with "he did, I did" in court.
An ex Police colleague even has a rear facing camera, as he does a lot of motorway driving.
Penseivat
We were offered one as part of the package when we bought the car, but VW Finance GmbH already had my firstborn and my soul, so we declined.
A couple of years ago, my wife was driving us and we were following a large lady cyclist down a steep hill in the South Downs. She was keeping well in, but due to her speed and the narrowness of the road, we didn't overtake her. Then we got to a roundabout. The cyclist was about 10 feet ahead, and as far over to the left as she could get. She had to be going straight across (there was no left turn - the first exit was dead ahead). Suddenly my wife braked sharply, and the cyclist swung right across in front of us to turn right. From the left lane, with no signal or warning. Had my wife not braked, we would have hit the cyclist broadside on.
As we drove on, the adrenaline subsiding, I asked my wife why she had braked. She said she just knew the cyclist was going to do that. Intuition, gut feeling, premonition... She also pointed out that if we had collided, we would likely have got the blame with no witnesses.
So yeah, dash cams...
Bought one for each car some while back. Cost was minimal, about a tenner each from Ebay. They seem to work except that they also have movement sensors in case the car is hit while parked but it doesn't happen 'cos the ciggy lighter socket is only live when running. There are some available that replace the rear view mirror and look both frontwards and back, seems a good idea.
Penseivat - thanks, interesting to hear that they really are useful. After a browse on Amazon, quite a few dash cams seem to come with a rear view camera too. We'll probably go for a simple forward facing one and see how it goes.
Sam - cyclists do such scary things. I think they are saved by motorist intuition more than they ever realise. Mrs H says the cyclists didn't appear to realise they had reached a junction and the one I could have collided with was virtually doing a U-turn back from the centre towards the left hand side of the road.
Woodsy - I like the idea of replacing the rear view mirror, although I'll go for a simple one to begin with. Something small I can stick to the windscreen with a suction cup and use on either car.
Now you've got me thinking as well...
Oh, yes, number one on the motoring essentials list. Ours provided footage when we were Tboned in broad daylight on a suburban dual carriageway although the crowd of witnesses gave every impression of siding with the idiot who was responsible. Soon afterwards I fitted one to the rear in case we were ever taken up the arse, so to speak. I use 2 Nextbase 112: inexpensive, good quality results and look after themselves once set up.
I've had one for years and they're great. I've never had to actually use the footage, but it's there if you need it and invaluable if someone tries to blame you for something they caused.
I had a cheap one from China for a very long time and replaced it with a similar priced one when it finally packed in. £10 - £20, when you can pay a fortune.
My current one is like a rear view mirror, which clips over the existing one and the video screen is on one side
Wish I'd had a dash cam this a.m. In a large, ground-level, outdoor car park the bloke directing us was wearing a surgical mask.
Scrobs - people here certainly seem to find them useful
Jannie - thanks, I'll make a note of that one - the number available is so large.
Bucko - I like the idea of a rear view mirror version too.
dearieme - that's partly why I like the idea, picking up images of anything interesting, including loons.
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