Moscow Plane Crash Caught On Passerby's Dash Cam

acidradio writes "Yesterday a Tupolev 204 (Russian-made aircraft equivalent to an Airbus 321 or a shortened 757) overran the runway at Moscow Vnukovo airport and crashed into a nearby highway. A plane crash is always bad, but what makes this seem different is how well it was recorded. It seems like everyone in Russia has a dashcam, here is footage. A driver who just happened to be driving by on the nearby M3 highway (right about here on the map) is pelted by flying nose wheels and a row of coach-class seats! An accident like this has probably never been filmed so up close. We are getting better and better at recording accidents and disasters (whether by coincidence due to overuse of surveillance or maybe on purpose). What does that say about our level of documentation and recording of people's everyday lives? And what's the deal with dashcams in every Russian car?"

Comments

One word: Lawsuits

[Kid Zero]

Seriously, Dash Cams are the best defense against scam artists.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[sabri]

Seriously, Dash Cams are the best defense against scam artists.

Or to prove that you weren't the culprit. Have a look at these videos, taken from my own dashcam in San Jose, CA:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BgkCUbeuck
This is my wife driving. Watch the grey SUV on the right lane at 00:09.

Or the "best" one I ever caught: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9g7H0-NelI
Skip to 00:50 for the action. You can clearly see the red car turning left on a red light. After the accident I provided first aid until CHP arrived (none of the injured had life threatening injuries). I lived close to the accident site so I drove home and burned the 1080p video on a DVD and gave it to the police.

Two months later I get a call from the insurer of the red car. Apparently they were unaware of the existence of the video: "Are you sure you saw that the light was red? Are you really really sure? Really??". So I answer "I got it on video on my dashcam". "Oh, ok, thanks -click".

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Anonymous Coward]

And the scam artists are a huge problem there, which is why everyone has dash cams there.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Anonymous Coward]

No, they're the best defense against police. When a policeman pulls you over and tries to extract a bribe, the dash cam is how you prove that you didn't follow too close, change lanes too suddenly, or whatever.

dom

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[hawguy]

Seriously, Dash Cams are the best defense against scam artists.

Or to prove that you weren't the culprit. Have a look at these videos, taken from my own dashcam in San Jose, CA:

The Youtube page says you're using a dod-tec GS600 dashcam -- are you happy with it? The Amazon page for the camera has mostly 1 star ratings.

I'm looking for a good, relatively inexpensive dash-cam. Something small that I can "set-and-forget" - mount it on the windshield, run 12V power to it and be reasonably confident that it's going to record everything without me needing to check on it or replace SD cards.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Garridan]

No, they're the best defense against scam artists.

FTFY.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Anonymous Coward]

That's what happens when people are blabbing away on their phones instead of paying attention to the road.

Aside from that, I don't know if your camera didn't pick up on it, but it didn't look like you were using your turn signals when you pulled out of your parking space and again when you turned out onto the road. The cabbie in front of you was late on his turn signal and he also made an illegal left turn.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Mononoke]

Not that you asked me, but I'm using the Roadhawk DC-1: http://www.roadhawk.co.uk/roadhawk-dc-1-car-black-box-camera/prod_18.html

The Roadhawk is the best implementation of a black box camera I have seen. It has enough on-board backup power to write the necessary EOF so that the actually crash video isn't corrupted (that's where the dod-tec apparently fails). It stores incident (accelerometer triggered) video files in a separate folder so that aren't eventually written over. It creates 60 sec. standard MP4 video files that can be played anywhere, yet those same files when read with Roadhawk's Windows software also show accelerometer graphs, speed of travel, and GPS maps. "Incident" files get written as 20 sec MP4 files with the triggering incident at the 10 second point in the file. Yes, they sell to US customers also.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[immaterial]

I've also been looking for a good dash cam and would love some input from Slashdotters. Every single one I've looked at so far seems to get terrible reviews, and/or requires its own proprietary windows-only software to view videos in some funky format (!!?).

Earlier this year I was driving down the street and was suddenly hit by an old lady who was parked at the curb and suddenly pulled out to make a U-turn. Fortunately, as soon as our cars came to a crunching stop, I jumped out and snapped photos with my phone - which went straight to both her and my insurance companies within the hour. Initially her insurance company refused to admit fault, based on her story that she was just innocently driving down the road and tried to make a left turn, whereupon she ran into my car which was crazily driving the wrong way down the oncoming lane. I called them up and asked how the hell they could buy that story when my photos clearly showed me in the correct lane and her at the curb; apparently they never bothered to look at the photos I'd sent! They caved and admitted fault within the hour.

But if it hadn't been for those pictures... suffice it to say, I *really* want a dash cam. (Preferably, if they're cheap enough, two - one rearview.)

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Missing.Matter]

This is my wife driving. Watch the grey SUV on the right lane at 00:09.

I think your wife singing in the car is funnier. You could have cut this video at 00:10.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Anonymous Coward]

I have one and they are teh crap.

It often freezes up, recording nothing until you notice (blinkylight is not blinking) and press the reset button. The fact that it has a reset button should have made me suspicious. Sometimes it freezes up in such a way that I need to reformat the memory card in order to get it going again.

So, you can't rely on it to have recorded anything in case you do have an accident. Not good.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[AmiMoJo]

This is my wife driving. Watch the grey SUV on the right lane at 00:09.

In my country we either sound our horn for one long continuous 30 second blast to publicly shame the offender, or simply allow the accident and claim vast sums of $currency for whiplash injury compensation. I think you guys could learn from this.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[PNutts]

And if we're picking nits, she ended up going 52 MPH in a 45 MPH zone. :)

GP: Thanks for posting the vids. Very cool.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Anonymous Coward]

Nothing is picking nits when you're in control of a large piece of machinery hurtling down the road. Accidents are caused because people neglect those little nits, such as not properly signaling, not turning into the correct lane, not using rearview mirrors, not turning your head to look when making a turn/changing lanes, not driving the speed limit, talking on the phone, etc.

For example, driving 52 in a 45 zone may not seem like a big deal, but if she had been driving 45, that close call would have been more of a "what an asshole" moment instead of "oh shit, I'm going to get hit".

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Anonymous Coward]

Skip to 00:50 for the action. You can clearly see the red car turning left on a red light.

I've watched that video a few times, and I can't see any red lights in front of that car. I can see your red light. I can see several green lights in front of the red car on the left edge of the video well before they start their turn. I can see adjacent cars driving through the intersection both before and after them because they have the same green light.

Was there some 'no turn except on advance green' signal at that intersection that we can't see from watching it? If not, the driver of the red car did NOT run a red light, though they were still at fault for the accident by turning in front of oncoming traffic.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[immaterial]

That camera looks pretty damn nice overall. But given that a simple GoPro can record quite clear 1080p, the 640x480 resolution seems anemic. Image quality isn't the absolute most important feature (as long as it is clear enough that you can see who did what), but I'd still love to find a great 1080p-capable dash cam (more likely to capture plate numbers of hit-and-runs or potential witnesses, etc.). I'm also a little wary of GPS data; normal flow of traffic around here is 5-10 MPH over the limit (depending on the road or freeway) and I'd hate to have someone entirely at fault for hitting me try to claim contributory negligence on my part based on my own recorded evidence (I'm sure someone here will take issue with this, but the camera is to cover my ass, not anyone else's).

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Anonymous Coward]

to be honest the reason why I don't have a dashcam is that I am worried it might incriminate me when I do mess up

as it is I ask the front seat passenger, assuming there is one, to watch just in case i might miss something - because i figure two heads are better than one

however i am now actually thinking that actually having one might be a good idea as it would let me review when I have messed up and see if I could read the road better next time.

Btw just to say i haven't had a vehicle involved incident in 10 years - but there have been so very close calls and I don't know if its me or the other parties.

besides how else can I improve, except analysing my mistakes

any advice on where to get good review/advice (beyond a search by DuckDuckGo) would be appreciated

and thanks for the videos

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[cathector]

i also do not see the light controlling the intersection for the red car.
it's off-screen on the left the entire time.
from the video alone it might be red or green.

but perhaps with special knowledge of the intersection's patterns, the light's color could be deduced.
for example, perhaps the green lights for the left-to-right moving traffic implies that the red car's turn lane had a red.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[CaptainLard]

Or you could just easily avoid the accident as the GP did and get home for dinner on time and rant for 3 min about some idiot on the road. In the process you'll save yourself an hour at the scene talking to police, 6 hours in the emergency room, 2 hours on the phone with your insurance, a week waiting for your car to get fixed, a day talking with your lawyer, a day or two in court/mediation, 1-2 years waiting for settlement negotiations, and then another 6-12 months for payment assuming its not doled out periodically over many years (*my numbers are wild speculation but the hassle is not). Seriously, bad drivers piss me off royally but I'd rather not give up potentially hundreds of hours of my life for spite and a small chance of a financial return greater than all of the work hours I missed if I can just avoid the accident. Not to mention if I actually did end up with whiplash and have neck problems for the rest of my life.People in your country should learn from slashdot nerds and get a hobby. Bad drivers suck but sometimes its best to just let it go.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[PNutts]

Nah, that was just a poor joke. :) Had she been going 52 and collided with the SUV, I assume the SUV's insurance company would successfully argue that she was double-digit percent at fault for the accident.

I used to work for a guy that always speeded (sped?). He could never figure out why people always cut him off changing lanes or by pulling out in front of him. He just couldn't understand that other drivers don't expect and aren't used to other vehicles going must faster than the speed limit.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[tumnasgt]

On the approach the intersection there are left turn lights clearly visible for the traffic traveling from left to right on-screen.
If you look along the pole holding the lights for the right to left traffic you can see there are two lights for left turning traffic just as there are for the opposite direction. While not the clearest, they are definitely red.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Kethinov]

Wow your videos hit a bit too close to home for me! I drive down that road in your first video all the time. I've also been considering getting a dashcam for the same reason you have one. My only concern is finding one that doesn't require a lot of fuss. I'm looking for something that auto-activates when the car is on and shuts itself off when the car is off. Ideally it'd roll over the video too, only keeping a memory of the last X hours. That way I only have to do anything with the dashcam when I actually want to permanently archive some video when something notable happens.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[jtownatpunk.net]

I can see it. Switch to 1080p and fullscreen. You can see the two red lights controlling the two left turn lanes in the red car's direction of travel. You can also see that the opposing traffic has "straight" green lights as the red car is entering the intersection tho those lights pass out of frame before the accident.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Anonymous Coward]

Lol. "Are you sure you are happy with it? Are you really really sure? Really??"

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[JWSmythe]

To start, I'm an American, living in the United States.

I started recording all my driving a few months ago. I got a red light ticket, and I specifically remember the light being green until it was out of view, obscured by the roof of my car.

I've also been in car accidents, where people lie about what happened. There have also been incidents where the police make wild claims about my driving which just weren't true. "Careless driving" where you were swerving in the lane is hard to argue in court, but easier with video proof.

My logic is, rather than let my word stand up in court, let the video testify for me.

Since I'm recording with my phone, it eliminates any question of if I'm texting or talking on the phone while I'm driving. I can't. The phone is busy recording. If I had a second phone, you'd hear me talking. The only talking you hear is the radio, or if I dictate license plates.

I'm using the Android app "Torque Recorder". It's not perfect. Well, it's much less than perfect. It does record my OBDII information, but when it encodes to combine the data, the data and video skew. It's about 5 seconds in 15 minutes of driving. It also sucks down the battery in my phone horribly. In a 2.1A charger in the car, it drops about 2% in 30 minutes. Without charging, it will have sucked about 90% of the battery in 30 minutes.

The other problem is the video quality. It's fine for seeing which car did what, and ambient noises. You can't read license plates. That's why I dictate the occasional license plate. If someone is driving badly, and I think there might be a problem, I already have the plate dictated which can be heard on playback. It also gets confused about focus. There's no setting for manual focus, and sometimes it'll focus back to the windshield rather than the objects in front of the car. Like, if it's raining, the focus changes from windshield to cars when the wipers sweep by.

Sometimes the Torque Recorder encoding program can't actually encode the stored video. The video is just MP4, so it's fine. It just doesn't have the vehicle data included. If it had to go to court, I can provide the data file, since it's just a CSV.

So far, I've been lucky. There have been some lunatics. I've had to make extreme maneuvers to avoid them, but so far there has been no accident. Lately, I've caught the end result of two accidents resulting in fatalities (after the police arrived, not the accident itself), and lots of smoke from people locking up their tires skidding to a stop just short of accidents.

I don't worry about it while I'm driving. I just have to remember to start it when I start driving, and stop it when I get to my destination.

Since it's recording some select OBDII information, I have my throttle position and actual ground speed recorded, rather than trusting the

I intend to work on my own app, and hopefully fix the video quality, battery life, and encoding problems.

Hopefully I'll never be "lucky" enough to catch a plane crash.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[ls671]

You will see what I will do of your dash cam and your silly evidence next time I stop you AC.

Your friendly neighborhood sheriff.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Anonymous Coward]

I notice at 0:52 in the first video you're going 52 in 45. I have notified the authorities.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Maow]

Or the "best" one I ever caught: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9g7H0-NelI

Skip to 00:50 for the action. You can clearly see the red car turning left on a red light. After the accident I provided first aid until CHP arrived (none of the injured had life threatening injuries). I lived close to the accident site so I drove home and burned the 1080p video on a DVD and gave it to the police.

Two months later I get a call from the insurer of the red car. Apparently they were unaware of the existence of the video: "Are you sure you saw that the light was red? Are you really really sure? Really??". So I answer "I got it on video on my dashcam". "Oh, ok, thanks -click".

Is there a separate left turn control for the red car? Because I watched the video and I saw green lights for traffic in both directions.

Regardless, the red car obviously turned left whilst it was unsafe to do so, so they are still responsible. It's just that I can't determine any red light.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know about you, but my spinal cord is more valuable to me than a cash payment. Wouldn't gamble it on something like this.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Anonymous Coward]

I've seen wrecks where people would back up into another car to deliberately cause an incident. Were it not for witnesses who chose to stay there and gave statements, the police would have faulted the completely wrong parties.

I'm all for a good TV cam. If it is someone else's fault, it means that it is caught on film in full HD for a jury and insurance to look at. If it is my fault, that is what insurance is for. Using a TV cam means that in general, I am gambling that a wreck is going to be someone else's doing as opposed to mine.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Mumford]

Take a look at this screen grab. I've circled the left turn control signals. They're clearly red as the car is coming into the intersection.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Anonymous Coward]

You can clearly see the turn lanes are red lights for the red car and are before it enters the intersection. It looks like the dude was driving drunk.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[jamesh]

Take a look at this screen grab. I've circled the left turn control signals. They're clearly red as the car is coming into the intersection.

Can such a device offer any proof that the resulting image (and in particular screen grabs) have not been tampered with? Changing that light from green to red would be a few minutes work with any decent image manipulation software.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Mumford]

IANAL, but it seems to me this is evidence no different from a security camera in a bank or some such.

If the defense wants to argue that it's been tampered with, they would need to provide proof of such in order to get it not admitted. They can question it's validity all they want, but that won't prevent it being admitted into evidence.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Anonymous Coward]

That's ok, it's streamed to the internet in realtime.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Ocker3]

In the absence of other contradicting data, video footage from a random bystander who has no stake in the outcome of the decision is going to be highly valued by the Police.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[ls671]

"streamed to the internet" what do you mean?

-Your friendly neighborhood sheriff.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Anonymous Coward]

Do either of you have any emotion? You wife just gives the tiniest gasp and continues on as if nothing happened. No horn, no "what the fuck", and no "watch where you're going, motherfucker". Just continues on as if nothing happened. And you. It's like your sitting there thinking "just another major collision right in front of me...just like every other time I go out for a drive".

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Anonymous Coward]

"sped" or "was always speeding" would be correct.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Anonymous Coward]

It means the video already resides on multiple servers around the world, hundreds or thousands of people have already seen your actions and that you better start looking for a new job.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Vaphell]

if you want to link to some specific moment in youtube clip, add timestamp to the url in the following format: #t=XmY (X minutes Y seconds, though seconds alone work too)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BgkCUbeuck#t=0m9
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9g7H0-NelI#t=0m50

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Anonymous Coward]

Most of these would be so hard to fake convincingly as to be serious productions, and not something you could provide to the police in short order.

But you could challenge it if you wanted.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BgkCUbeuck

This is my wife driving. Watch the grey SUV on the right lane at 00:09.

You should let your wife know that she was in the wrong lane after that intersection.
http://www.mit.edu/~jfc/right.html

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[ls671]

Oh, that's what my teckie deputy-sheriff was talking about when he said he was installing a jamming system in the county to prevent dash cam "streaming".

I think the county is safe and secure thanks to him.

-Your friendly neighborhood sheriff.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[dj245]

There are lots of these things on Aliexpress.com from a wide variety of sellers. Most of the reviews are from Russia but most of the models seems to have good ratings. Inexpensive and most of them do 1080p for less than $150. Depending on what features you can do without, you can get 1080p at less than $100. If you are wary of GPS data incriminating yourself, get a model without it. Some models you can turn it off.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[nschubach]

Both my friend and I bought the DOD GS600... one came with a bum controller, but we had the other one to use for setting it up. They've been reliable with very few lost videos (if it's in the middle of a 1 minute block and you shut off the car it may lose that clip.) Interestingly enough, we've had better luck using 5 minute blocks of video.

We got it because it claimed 1080p video. We've mainly been using it in 720p because it looks about the same (ie: you can't read plates unless you are right up on the person even in 1080 mode) and you can record longer without having to reformat/clear the card.

Video wise and dependability? It's not bad. It's good for CYA and a few laughs at morons doing stupid things. I've considered it well worth the cost of the unit and I don't know if there's anything else out there that would give (better) real good clear video without paying for it.

I've left mine in the front window 24/7 (garaged at home, open parking lot at work) without any issues in regards to the sun beating down on it all day.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[uniquename72]

Most new cars have a black box device that will record and preserve data leading up to any airbag deployment.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Anonymous Coward]

Not in modern Russia. "There are no reason to doubt policeman words". No matter what proofs you have. And they don't care about your "falsified video, distributed from Americans servers". Sure, you'll hear this phrase in 100% of political cases, but in good number of totally-unpolitical too.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[nschubach]

The DOD GS600 (the one the op uses) supports all that. I have one as well. I just get in the car and leave it plugged in. when it gets power it automatically starts recording to the SD Card and when it's out of space it will delete the oldest.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[nschubach]

I had problems with it recording sometimes as well, but then I got a Class 10 SD card and have had a 99% capture rate.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Anonymous Coward]

taken from my own dashcam in San Jose, CA

A friend of my cousin grew up next door to someone who knew Leona Lewis... he was way into her before anyone.

lived close to the accident site so I drove home and burned the 1080p video on a DVD and gave it to the police

hey neat set up, but my 3D 8K dash cam is on a live uplink so all I gotta do is give them a URL

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Smauler]

I speed - and I am not angry in the slightest when someone pulls out in front of me & cuts me up. It's very, very rare I ever brake hard (I don't remember the last time I did) when it's not just me on the road.

When you're going quickly, you've got to anticipate people pulling out in front of you. If you don't, you should not be going quickly. You should not blame people going a reasonable speed moving into the overtaking lane in front of you, if you're going quick. It's very easy to do - you do not expect someone to be approaching from behind quickly.

People who speed then blame others is moronic IMO. However, people who do stupid stuff then blame people who speed is also moronic.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[midicase]

I use a standard 4 channel home security recorder and mount a couple of standard home security cameras. Usually at least one over the rear view mirror, facing forward, and one facing to the rear.

The DVR, like most others, is 12V so it is trivial to wire into the system so it comes on automatically. With a 500MB drive, it keeps about two weeks of recordings.

The whole setup runs under 200 USD, 100USD for the DVR and about 35USD each camera.

I haven't caught anything exciting, but I did recently "shame" a local law enforcement officer who accused me of not fully stopping. I simply pointed to the camera and he told me to move along.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Myopic]

It depends on your standards of "proof". Good enough for a US court? Yes.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[tibit]

You must not be driving much, huh? There's no point in honking the horn after the fact. Expletives can't undo what has happened either.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Jarik C-Bol]

Exactly. Cracked had an article that covered the weird proliferation of Russian dash cam video. Seems that there is a huge amount of -attempted- insurance fraud in Russia (just look up on youtube to see dozens of pedestrians walking out into the street and laying down, or leaping onto the hoods of stopped cars and then flopping on the ground like a landed fish). Apparently, the insurance companies are terrible to deal with, so people have resorted to dash cams so they always have visual evidence to bring to court when dealing with this crap.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Jarik C-Bol]

I know you are trolling and whatever, but people would notice, and report it to the FCC if there was any sort of public spectrum jamming going on, and then the FCC comes in and triangulates the source, and then the FBI comes in and plays 'Federal Pound you in the Ass Prison' for whoever was jamming. Thanks Neighborhood Sheriff!

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow that's some really good night vision on that camera. Did you do anything special?

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[ls671]

Around here, the FCC is my brother in law and the FBI is my nephew. I personaly invite you to our New Year's Eve party. You will see that we are all a big happy family ! ;-)

-Your friendly neighborhood sheriff.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Anonymous Coward]

cool story bro

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[ckedge]

> Can such a device offer any proof that the resulting image (and in particular screen grabs) have not been tampered with?

I think all evidence submitted into court relies on the testimony of the individual who collected or produced the evidence. Whether or not something can theoretically be faked is less important than how trustworthy the person or persons who produced the evidence is, and the supporting coroberating evidence that backs up the claims of where and how they collected the evidence.

ie: Does he have a vested interest? Or is he a disinterested third party? Latter? Then he likely did not tamper with his video. Did he give the memory chip directly to the police at the scene? Very unlikely he tampered with it. Soon after the incident when he had a chance to burn it to a DVDR? Not likely, not unless someone can testify that he's a photoshop freak and likes lying to police and screwing with people. And again, straight back to the question of "conflict of interest or disinterested third party" and "citizen with a clean record".

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[jayveekay]

The red car is in the leftmost of 2 left turning lanes. The car in the rightmost of the 2 left turning lanes remains stationary, which would be evidence that the left turn light was red.

Regardless of the signal state, as you note it is clearly a poor driving decision by the red car driver to accelerate from a stopped state and initiate a left turn into traffic that is flowing at high speed. If I were stopped in my car and I got a green light but oncoming traffic chose to ignore the signals and continue then I would choose to remain stopped. The rule for making a turn is that you should not turn your wheels until you are certain that you will be able to safely complete the turn and clear the intersection. That's because if you turn your wheels and stop and wait for traffic to clear, a car behind you can rear end you and push you into traffic, getting you killed. Happened to a coworker, RIP.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Anonymous Coward]

Or you could pay attention to the driver in the right lane, who gave a few seconds of (subtle) warning that they were going to attempt a risky manoeuvre. Slowing/stopping in the right hand lane should give a moment for consideration that something is amiss and regular traffic flow/right of way rules may not apply. Kudos to the driver for avoiding the collision, though I'm disappointed that a shaming long horn blast wasn't applied :) The second video is an unfortunate tragedy .. traffic signals operate somewhat on faith, and collisions are very difficult to avoid.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Anonymous Coward]

Dude. Maybe the guy in the gray SUV didn't expect you to be there. I don't know the traffic laws in
California, but where I live, that kind of road would be 35 MPH. The other cars seem to be moving
much more slowly than your wife. Are you sure that your wife wasn't speeding?

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Anonymous Coward]

I rewatched the video. Near the end, I saw a 45MPH speed limit sign. That
still seems rather fast for that kind of neighbourhood. And at the end, your
wife IS speeding, going 52 MPH according to your dash cam. Defensive
drivers watch their speed so that they can be prepared to deal with the
unexpected crazies out there, especially as they approach intersections.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[hairyfish]

Wow, how many accidents are you having/witnessing? I've been driving 25 years and never ever required a camera for either my own driving or anyone else's? I think they're a great idea but I'm not sure how much use the average person would get out of one.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Anonymous Coward]

Methinks he was joking.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[atheos]

the first time you need it, even if it's the only time in your life, you'll be glad you had it.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[ipmasqman]

I commute on motorcycle and ride with a Hero 2 Camera. It has saved me once from a scammer. I ran into the back of a minivan with my saddlebag. The police responded. Insurance information was exchanged. Despite no injuries on the day of the accident, and no notable damage to me or my motorcycle. The driver claimed that 6 people in his vehical were suffering from neck and back injuries. Insurance paid him $297. The driver got $100 for seeing a doctor. He got $197 to have his bumper repainted. But, he wanted much much more. I think everyone should ride or drive with a camera on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taZdan_iEjY

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Anonymous Coward]

Itronics ITB-100HD (search for the reviews)

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Anonymous Coward]

If you're dictating license plates, why not send them into Road Hero? :-)

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Anonymous Coward]

Navman, of GPS fame, sells these perfectly serviceable units:
http://www.navman.com.au/car-GPS-devices/digital-drive-recorder-series/

The only thing they're missing is a GPS to record location and speed, but that can be a double-edged sword. (Though so can the recording)

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Anonymous Coward]

It's hard to see without going fullscreen at 1080p (like the poster above suggests), but there are four sets of lights on the intersection. The two lights governing the turn lane(s) are on the far end of the beam holding them over the road instead of being mounted as part of the array governing the lanes that go straight. This must be a pretty major intersection, given the set up of the lights and turn-lanes.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[DennyK]

I'll usually give someone a honk if they do something stupid and dangerous that nearly causes an accident. Most bad drivers will be too oblivious to know (or care) why you honked at them anyway, but there's always a small chance the offender will hear it and think "oh hey, I must have done something dumb there..." and then be more careful in the future. Getting all angry and laying on the horn and cussing at 'em incessantly doesn't do anything useful, though, and just makes you more likely to do something stupid yourself.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Anonymous Coward]

so your safety net is fiddling with an app whilst driving, and reaching with the other hand to hook up the charger? When you do start on that app, for heaven's sake, please don't code it while driving.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[tibit]

You need a rear-facing horn, though, because usually you end up passing the offender and honking at the wrong guy, or even at no one :(

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[gothzilla]

Try DailyRoads. It's got the G-force auto-save feature and it can record in the background so you can still use google maps for navigation.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[JWSmythe]

I plug it in and start it while I'm parked, and let it run for the entire drive. I don't stop it again until I get to my destination. So I don't look at or touch the phone during the whole drive.

That's why I'm bothered with the skewing in gauges. If I was recording short clips, it wouldn't matter. Since I'm doing anywhere from 30 to 90 minute drives, it would become significant if I encoded the vehicle data with the video.

But, you bring up a valid argument for the other side, if I ever use a clip in court. No court would allow a 90 minute video to show 1 minute around an accident. They'd only want the 1 minute played.

Having the longer recording is useful. Last Friday, I saw a guy drift into the breakdown lane on a highway twice. He almost hit the wall once. I don't know if he was on his phone, trying to figure out how to work his CD changer, or was otherwise distracted. If there was an accident, it most likely wouldn't have involved me, since I saw him swerving and left him lots of room. He could have gotten into an accident minutes later, which the video would be useful. It'd be bad for him, but would help prove the innocence of anyone he hit.

Video evidence of that guy would be far superior to my spoken or written testimony that I saw him swerving earlier.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[JWSmythe]

    That's one I looked at.. Unfortunately, the G sensor isn't necessarily smart enough to know that something was important to record.

    Use the video in the article as an example. Rather than being this specific car, imagine it being in the next car back. He wouldn't have been hit by debris or other cars. He would have just stopped safely and hopefully tried to help the survivors. Most of the apps have an option to save on high G events or to save on button push. There wouldn't have been a high G event, and I'd hope he'd be more concerned with helping people, than messing with his phone to hit the record button.

    Secondary accidents happen a lot too. Stopping on a highway isn't always the safest thing to do. If someone approaching the accident doesn't notice that everyone stopped, they could (and frequently do) have other incidents that wouldn't be recorded if they didn't involve the car recording.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[JWSmythe]

    Well, I'm not law enforcement, so it's not up to me to report anyone for doing something bad. I don't see where on the Road Hero site, they actually work with law enforcement to stop bad drivers.

    I've only called the police a few times on traffic related matters. All but one were accidents that needed emergency response.

    The one that wasn't an accident was a guy in a pickup truck swerving all over an interstate. I should explain that a bit more. He would literally go from driving in one lane, to swerving across the highway, into the breakdown lane and back. Sometimes he'd end up in the original lane, sometimes the other lane, and sometimes all the way across to the other shoulder.

    The vehicle I was in didn't have the power to get around him safely, so all I could do is sit back and try not to get hit. We called the highway patrol emergency number. They dispatched immediately to where we said we were. We gave the approx year, make model, and license plate number, location, and direction of travel. They asked us to stay on the phone, and keep a safe observation distance, so we could keep them updated to where we were, and let them know if something worse happened.

    At one point, he stopped in the highway, which was greeted with honking horns and screeching tires behind us.

    Another car realized what was happening, and he sat in the lane beside us, rolling along at 45mph about 20 car lengths behind the hazard. The speed limit is 70 on that road, so other drivers weren't exactly entertained, but they were safe.

    For us, the whole thing ended just after we passed a rest area. It appeared that he decided he wanted to go into the rest area, but missed the entrance by about 1/10 mile. He just turned right, ran off the road, and got stuck in the ditch.

    We asked highway patrol if they needed anything more from us. They said our description would be all they'd need, but they had my phone number in case they needed more. The call was recorded, so if it went to court, they'd just use that.

    Since we never got a call asking for anything, I'd guess the guy plead guilty to whatever they charged him with. Probably DUI or general dumbassery.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[asdf7890]

Altering a video convincingly is much harder than an indivdual frame, though still possible.

In this instance a there will be other evidence to back up the video: the sequencing of the lights will follow certain patterns for instance, so changing the colour of lights in the video is likely to create a sequence that simply isn't possible. In most cases where video or photographic evidence is accpeted, it is used in conjunction with other evidence rather than trusted on its face value alone because of how many ways such things can be tampered with.

Also in instances like this it is unlikely to come to court. The insurance company certainly won't fight like that, and the driver will hopefully have either the good sense to not waste the time and money or not have the time/money to throw at such a case anyway. It it really was the insurer calling then it would have been simply to check that they were safe to reject a claim, if not then it will be someone acting on behalf of the driver testing the water to see if there is enough evidence to make a claim (or further appeal) pointless.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Anonymous Coward]

It's more likely the red car driver was stoned. Getting high from marijuana drastically increases reaction time and makes people "zone out" where they won't notice a red light.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[cathector]

yr right - i watched it again and the lights are right there.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Anonymous Coward]

She's not.

From your link: "California: Yellow" - yellow if vehicles moving at the normal speed of traffic are permitted in the left lane even when they are unnecessarily obstructing other traffic

OP clearly wrote San Jose, CA

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[sabri]

I've also been looking for a good dash cam and would love some input from Slashdotters.

Here is the cam I bought to replace my DOD-TEC, you can buy it off Ebay. Daytime quality is much better than night time, but as long as it records without crashing I'm happy.

Daytime quality: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9xBNcfQ8sI
Nighttime quality: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaZWpMMLYME

Not linking to the actual product, I don't want to spam. But if you're interested you'll be able to find it.

Re:One word: Lawsuits

[Anonymous Coward]

I only got my license a couple of years ago and being inexperienced, I try to be extra careful to avoid any impact regardless of whose fault it would actually be. However, when my father once observed me doing so he warned me that when I do everything to avoid bent metal I can easily cause an accident which actually does end up being my fault. For instance, if I by reflex move away for a moronic driver like the one in the video, I might end up doing something equally moronic to someone else and thus the original moron gets away whilst I end up guilty for an accident.

Frosty piss?

[Bearhouse]

Easy answer to this - I was working in Moscow all this year. If you have an accident, you HAVE to wat for the police to come to make an official report, (otherwise your car insurance will not pay out).

When they get there, the person with the biggest bribe gets the favourable report...

So, better to have a dashcam...

Re:Frosty piss?

[Bearhouse]

Yeah, yeah..."wait"', sorry...fucking virtual keyboards...

Re:Frosty piss?

[dotancohen]

Easy answer to this - I was working in Moscow all this year. If you have an accident, you HAVE to wat for the police to come to make an official report, (otherwise your car insurance will not pay out).

When they get there, the person with the biggest bribe gets the favourable report...

So, better to have a dashcam...

That's a good thing, too. I imagine that the airline could afford a bigger bribe than the dashcam driver.

Re:Frosty piss?

[Anonymous Coward]

Easy answer to this - I was working in Moscow all this year. If you have an accident, you HAVE to wat for the police to come to make an official report, (otherwise your car insurance will not pay out).

When they get there, the person with the biggest bribe gets the favourable report...

So, better to have a dashcam...

And this is different from the United States how?

Re:Frosty piss?

[Anonymous Coward]

Easy answer to this - I was working in Moscow all this year. If you have an accident, you HAVE to wat for the police to come to make an official report, (otherwise your car insurance will not pay out).

This is sadly very true and is the primary reason for cams.

When they get there, the person with the biggest bribe gets the favourable report...

This is BS.

Also, a few years ago "road scams" were VERY popular (team of two cars makes a setup where you apparently damaged other vehicle and your fault is obivous). Widespread use of dashcams eleminated the problem.

Re:Frosty piss?

[shutdown -p now]

Exactly.

And the irony is that they're trying to ban dash cams now - there's a law under review in the parliament already...

Dashcams

[Anonymous Coward]

Dashcams provide proof of what happened in a culture full of corrupt law enforcement officers.

Re:Dashcams

[CdBee]

And - it has regrettably to be said - in a culture full of batshit-insane drivers. Even President Medyedev has gone on the record as stating that the Russian Federation has a lot of very poor and excessively reckless drivers.

Someone once told me that in Russian the words for yield/give way and surrender are identical and Russians surrender to nobody. Don't know if that's true. Not sure I want it to be....

Re:Dashcams

[Anonymous Coward]

I was in Taipei a few weeks ago an saw that most taxi's had dash cams - very small, very common. It makes sense to me for have these for a multitude of reasons as stated above. I don't see these being sold in the US - yet another case being behind the rest of the world - but of course we will never admit that...

Re:Dashcams

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not true in Russian, two completely unrelated words ( and ). In English it's true though, as yield can mean surrender.
The phrase "I yield to no one" is also in English (but has Latin roots).

Re:Dashcams

[Anonymous Coward]

Slashdot ate the text in Russian, it was "ustupat'" and "sdavat'sya" in Cyrillic letters.

Re:Dashcams

[CdBee]

Thanks

Re:Dashcams

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't see these being sold in the US - yet another case being behind the rest of the world - but of course we will never admit that...

Did you even bother checking Amazon before you posted that?

Re:Dashcams

[ultranova]

Dashcams provide proof of what happened in a culture full of corrupt law enforcement officers.

And if proof matters, you don't yet know the real meaning of corruption.

Re:Dashcams

[dmesg0]

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_sc_0_7?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=dash+cam&sprefix=dashcam

Re:Dashcams

[prisma]

I was in Taipei a few weeks ago an saw that most taxi's had dash cams - very small, very common. It makes sense to me for have these for a multitude of reasons as stated above. I don't see these being sold in the US - yet another case being behind the rest of the world - but of course we will never admit that...

I'd argue it's the opposite: It is because the relevant parts of American culture is/was ahead of many nations such that our police force and citizens are/were, on average, more honest than those in places where dash cams are more common and necessary.

You could try to counter this by saying that there's been a regression in society these days but that would only deflect the argument to a completely separate but debatable subject of its own.

The other replies ahead of mine have also already pointed out that dashcams are (and have been) available for sale in the US for quite some time. They just aren't very commonly used by the general public. Many law enforcement agencies already have them installed as standard equipment on their cruisers.

Re:Dashcams

[nmb3000]

And - it has regrettably to be said - in a culture full of batshit-insane drivers.

No joke. There are some pretty crazy Russian dashcam/streetcam compilations on Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFw1dpGw9uQ (0:55).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkvX9SVAlk0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTb4CGhp_eo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XB-B3Bqsm4 (2:52, 8:30)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiBLfLcUmZs (11:02)

It seems to be a combination of driving too fast for conditions (and/or bald tires) and assuming everyone else will jump the hell out of your way.

Re:Dashcams

[girlinatrainingbra]

That explains the prevalence of dashcams in Russia. But even in the year 2000, there were enough people driving with cellphones that could take pictures and with videocameras on them as they drove that some interesting videos and images were captured even then.
-- the Concorde crash after takeoff at Charles De Gaulle airport; has footage of the flames coming out of the engines
-- whenever there's a light-airplane, experimental airplane crash that occurs soon after takeoff (i.e. right near the airport runway), there's often another pilot or family member who captures videocamera or cellphone video footage of the incident (an incident in Kearney Mesa about 3 months ago)

Re:Dashcams

[Anonymous Coward]

It sounds like a joke with a kernel of truth.

Re:Dashcams

[Anonymous Coward]

In Chicago, the rules of the road are "Yield applies to you and right of way applies to me."

Re:Dashcams

[dotancohen]

No joke. There are some pretty crazy Russian dashcam/streetcam compilations on Youtube.

What is this word "blyad" that I keep hearing on those videos?

Re:Dashcams

[Anonymous Coward]

It means "bitch" but it is also used as "fuck".

Re:Dashcams

[Loki_666]

Its a typical swear word, used similar to how we use "shit" or "fuck". Other common ones are "yo moyo" "yob tvoyu mat" "pizdetz" and "kazul". Last one means literally "goat" and you shout it at other drivers who cut you up and stuff while making a variety of hand signals.

Driving in Russia is a fun game, but not for the faint of heart. Generally any drive of more than a kilometer or two around a city will enable you to see an accident or three.

If you are in an accident it usually takes several hours for the police to arrive, which is just lovely when the temperature is -20 or -30.

A previous poster mentioned that whoever gives the bigger bribe gets the better report, and its pretty true. Most road police will accept bribes, even though there was a big purge against corruption in my city a few years ago, things got a little better after that. Having a car video is a definite good idea.

Re:Dashcams

[Anonymous Coward]

Never Googled it, or just trying for very dry humor?

Googling your spelling gives a number of hits for the translation.

Re:Dashcams

[drinkypoo]

Apparently, dashcams are as popular as GPS devices in Russia, and you can get a basic model for an equivalent of about 40 euros, and an advanced model is as pricey as an advanced GPS is (with nice features).

This is the case for anyone to whom DealExtreme ships... It's about a hundred bucks for one worth owning, though.

Re:Dashcams

[Smauler]

I agree completely - I'm not American, I'm from the UK. With a corrupt police force, these kind of things are necessary.

With an generally honest police force, and populace, no one sees the need for these. The chances they might actually be useful does not outweigh the hassle of installing it.

Now... I personally am glad some people do feel the need for it here, because the police always need to be kept in check. I'm also glad most people don't.

Re:Dashcams

[PPH]

USA here. These would be great to document liability for the extremely infrequent accident. But I'd like to take videos of our village asshats and submit them to the police. But I'm not certain they'd do anything with them.

Re:Dashcams

[xenobyte]

It seems to be a combination of driving too fast for conditions (and/or bald tires) and assuming everyone else will jump the hell out of your way.

Not to mention a generous amount of vodka in their systems... Most of these accidents are the result of moves so stupid that it has to be the result of being severely drunk. I mean turning left from the rightmost lane, turning left into oncoming traffic going straight, driving fast weaving in and out in the middle of a snow storm, trying to overtake someone turning left, or driving straight into a stationary well-lit bus on an empty road on a clear night...

Re:Dashcams

[dotancohen]

Ya gavaru pa ruski yazig (chuchut). Ya znayu shto eta blyad.

Re:Dashcams

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not true. We have "ustupat" for "yield/give way" and "zdavatsa" for "surrender". Although interchangeable in some cases, these words are quite distinguishable in others including the saying "surrender to nobody".

Re:Dashcams

[andyn]

there are a lot of Russian tourists this time of year. Most of them do drive responsibly. And I urge you to do so here abroad (we have a pretty decent police who can write accurate reports if there is an accident and are not for sale) as well as home.

They drive responsibly abroad because breaking the law will get their visa revoked.

Re:Dashcams

[Skapare]

I once caught a perfect video shot of someone making a clearly illegal action AND the plate number was clear, too. I gave it to the police who said they could do nothing because the driver's face was not visible. WTF! Charge the OWNER and let them make their claim it was someone else (stolen, loaned, whatever). But that was in Ohio (just visiting) and they have some crazy laws there.

Re:Dashcams

[Anonymous Coward]

After seeing all the cam videos I think I'd need a tank to be on the road in Russia.

Drivers, pedestrians, all crazy. Driving too fast when it's icy. And what's with pedestrians running into the path of cars in winter? Trying to commit suicide?

Re:Dashcams

[Richy_T]

You will find the law is similar everywhere in the US and much of Western Europe because it simply makes sense.

Re:Dashcams

[Anonymous Coward]

Charge the owner with what? It's not illegal for them to lend their car to someone and it's not their fault if their car was stolen. The driver alone is responsible for any action that they make.

Re:Dashcams

[Anonymous Coward]

www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=blyad

Re:Dashcams

[Loki_666]

After seeing all the cam videos I think I'd need a tank to be on the road in Russia.

Drivers, pedestrians, all crazy. Driving too fast when it's icy. And what's with pedestrians running into the path of cars in winter? Trying to commit suicide?

Insurance scams.

Re:Dashcams

[PPH]

Unless its a contractor operating a red light camera for the city. That's exactly how they do it. A violation was committed with a car registered to you. Either you tell the cops who you loaned it to, or you get the ticket.

Re:Dashcams

[Anonymous Coward]

Greetings from Russia!
Give way means the same as pass, miss or skip but not surrender.
Another reason is that we have lots of drunk drivers, got several well-known cases last year when drunk driver killed a group of pedestrians at once (i.e. 15 children in Moscow about 2 months ago)

Dash car cams

[Anonymous Coward]

The dash car cams is because of a law that allows people to sue the driver if they get hurt. Lots of people pretend and pretty much jump in front of slow moving cars because its one of the easiest way to make money

Re:Dash car cams

[postbigbang]

Not if the judgment goes to your estate.

Re:Dash car cams

[antdude]

How come USA does have this law? :(

Re:Dash car cams

[Anonymous Coward]

a street beggar tried to jump in front of my slow moving car in India in August, i was making a u-turn and he popped out of the shadows, thankfully my gaming reflexes allowed me to brake in time, and i caught a glimpse of his disappointed face. Unfortunately for my bi-polar brain, i interpreted that event as a deliberate attempt by some one. After that and before i reached home i witnessed 2-3 events of rash driving which at the time i interpreted as further attempts by my tormentor to set me up in a crime of DUI (i was using weed). I reached home and a whole army of suspicions hit me, i even went as far as suspecting my father was involved. I then spent 2 months in a psy clinic. It was only after getting out of the clinic that i realised that only the first incident (the beggar) was real and the rest were my my fears/imagination. If only i had a dash cam, i could have shown it to the police/doctor/my father.

In Soviet Russia...

[Anonymous Coward]

In Soviet Russia, plane boards YOU!

Re:In Soviet Russia...

[Psicopatico]

In Soviet Russia, population supervise the government.

In Soviet Russia...

[Anonymous Coward]

the plane boards you!

Says Who?

[Anonymous Coward]

Who says there are dashcams in every Russian car?

Re:Says Who?

[hawguy]

Who says there are dashcams in every Russian car?

The huge number of Russian crash videos that keep popping up on Youtube and other places. They may not be in *every* car, but there sure seem to be a lot of them.

russian dashcam videos

[Anonymous Coward]

I watch a lot of car accidents on youtube for fun/ education, and I also wondered why they were always russian. One of the posters said it's because of car insurance reasons (or the lack thereof), and dashcam vids helps with claims. If you watch enough of these videos like I have on youtube, it's a free-for-all driving over there. Signs and traffic lights are pretty much optional.

But this is just one random explanation I've found and it seems plausible. Feel free to prove me wrong, as I'd like to know the "real" reasons too.

Re:russian dashcam videos

[Gaygirlie]

If you watch enough of these videos like I have on youtube, it's a free-for-all driving over there. Signs and traffic lights are pretty much optional.

I've seen quite a bunch of those videos myself and yeah, it's amazing how EXCEEDINGLY bad drivers there are, it's just god damn horrible. And it's only slightly better when they visit Finland: Lappeenranta here in Finland is a city that's pretty well filled with russians and every time I have to drive there I dread at the sight of russian drivers. Been in many a situation where the russian driver just decides to swerve right in front of me, or pushes me out of the lane, drives straight through red lights and so on and so forth.

I can't say much about them as people as I don't know any personally, but I find myself wishing they were never given cars or driver's licenses.

Re:russian dashcam videos

[Caedite Eos]

> it's amazing how EXCEEDINGLY bad drivers there are If you'd have ever driven there you'd know that driving is organized chaos. Barely organized, at that. So, any driver that has managed to stay alive for a few years ... automatically good driver. Still assholes, but not bad drivers. IMHO and all that.

Re:russian dashcam videos

[Anonymous Coward]

It's about traffic culture more than lack of skills. I've driven in Puerto Rico and lerned many a lesson on creative driving. I've been to Bangalore, India, and once you get over the horror of the traffic, you learn to appreciate the sheer choreography of the whole thing.

Yes, there are a lot of accidents but much fewer than you'd expect given the seeming chaos. In reality, it's not chaos but a whole different set of subtle cues you give by honking, flashing and initiative.

Of course, when driving cultures clash (as with Russians in Finland or vice versa), you are in greatest danger because those cues are not noticed or are misinterpreted.

Re:russian dashcam videos

[WGFCrafty]

This is a good point. I noticed while driving in the Bahamas, they use the horns to say 'what's up' to other drivers, and signal turns and what not. The lanes are narrow, and the driving was scary to me (from Texas), but it worked for them. Honking like they did in Texas would be taken as an offense to many people, maybe they're just more cheerful people, it sure seemed like that. I didn't see one unhappy Bahamian.

Re:russian dashcam videos

[jamesh]

If you watch enough of these videos like I have on youtube, it's a free-for-all driving over there. Signs and traffic lights are pretty much optional

It's probably unfair to judge russian driving by video's uploaded to youtube. I mean if you record your driving 365 days a year and come across an idiot doing something really stupid on one day of that year, which days video is going to get put up on youtube? "driving to work. everyone behaving themselves. nothing eventful happened" is hardly going to get a lot of hits.

Re:russian dashcam videos

[HornWumpus]

Damn. If the Fins say your a bad driver then you are. They know all about bad drivers.

Kind of like when the Mexicans have to tell you to calm down.

Re:russian dashcam videos

[Smauler]

This.

In the UK if you're waiting to exit a junction and someone flashes their lights at you, it's a signal they're letting you out. (If you flash someone out in the UK and it causes an accident, you can be liable despite not being involved directly)

On the continent, it's the opposite - they're coming through and alerting you to their presence.

I only learnt about this recently, despite having driven many times on the continent.

Re:russian dashcam videos

[Smauler]

The Finns are the best drivers in the world... possibly the maddest sometimes, too, but the best.

Re:russian dashcam videos

[Alioth]

Officially, in Britain flashing your lights is only to alert the other driver to your presence. However, in reality it's like you say notwithstanding what may be actually written in the Highway Code.

Re:russian dashcam videos

[miquels]

It's not that difficult. If they're driving and flashing their lights at you it means "I'm coming through". If they stop and flash it means "come on, go ahead". At least in .nl. YMMV.

Re:russian dashcam videos

[isorox]

Damn. If the Fins say your a bad driver

A moose!

Re:russian dashcam videos

[Anonymous Coward]

In Croatia (and we're the continent) it works the same way - if I flash, then I'm letting you to pass even if I have the right to go first. I don't understand why would anyone flash you to alert you to them? You're not blind, are you?

Re:russian dashcam videos

[HornWumpus]

Here is why the Fins are such bad drivers. They think they are great. Dunning–Kruger at a national level.

In truth the Fins are the 'best' drinkers in the world. Add that to their perception of themselves as drivers.

Not to say individual fins aren't great drivers, just the group that sucks.

Re:russian dashcam videos

[TheLink]

So, any driver that has managed to stay alive for a few years ... automatically good driver

Or just lucky.

Dash cams are in Russia because.. Russia's Russia.

[Anonymous Coward]

The driving in Russia is absolutely horrible. That's precisely the reason why so many people over there have dash cams.

As a matter of fact, as with anything else, there are a number of compilations of Russian dashcam videos that show some pretty outrageous things.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlxHPJAONpE
No wrecks in any other country have anything on Russia. Seriously.

have you never seen this?

[Anonymous Coward]

Russian pedestrians diving under cars to try and get compensated for an accident.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=c12_1349902324

Re:have you never seen this?

[mvar]

shit that's insane

Re:have you never seen this?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a risky business, scamming. Sometimes they get actually injured.

http://www.badchix.com/modules/fun/article.php?storyid=12602

alternate link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMOYZs4Zw8Q

Re:have you never seen this?

[PPH]

Looks just like the hobos jaywalking all around Bellevue Washington.

That guy blocking the BMW at around 2:55 looks like he's trying to carjack it. That could get you shot in these parts.

Re:have you never seen this?

[OneMadMuppet]

To be clear - some of those people "jumping under cars" were just pedestrians crossing on a zebra crossing (where pedestrians have right of way) and the cars tried to drive through them. This is also not unusual in ex-soviet countries.

Re:have you never seen this?

[Anonymous Coward]

exactly what happened to me in August 2012. Only...i did not have a dash cam, and no one believed me.

Combined Navigation gadgets come with dashcams

[Anonymous Coward]

Combined GPS and Navigation software gadgets come with dashcams included.
Like this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evDImqICY1w

Re:Combined Navigation gadgets come with dashcams

[Anne Thwacks]

Where is the Android App that you can run while using the phone in a stand for navigation?

My SGS3 has a suitable forward facing camera, enough memory, is always in the right place at the right time, and 1 pic per second for 3 minutes is enough.

A relative of mine hit a bus, and was not sure what happened - witnesses were not sure and disagreed - the bus cam showed enough detail to be quite sure the bus driver stayed in lane, and she didn't.

Re:Combined Navigation gadgets come with dashcams

[Anonymous Coward]

There is dailyroads voyager that works fine on the SGS3, in daylight it will record 1080p/30fps but at night it usually fall down to 15fps,
you can use the app in background, so you can use any navigation apps while still recording.
It will record all the time, only deleting older files when your specified max space is reached, if you want to keep a event, you just touch the screen and it will save the last file (or files). You can also set it to auto save if the accelerometer reach a specific amount of G-force..
http://www.dailyroads.com/voyager.php

Exaggeration

[Mike Mentalist]

Um, it's a bit of an exaggeration to say that the crash was caught on camera.

Re:Exaggeration

[AK Marc]

Yup, looked like aftermath only. A wheel, some seats, and assorted debris crossing a road that the plane itself did not. The real question though is, did they fine the pilot for littering?

Re:Exaggeration

[PNutts]

If you watch it in slow motion, you see an intact jet fuselage disappear (probably into a ditch) and then see the results of it slamming into the other side with debris flying up and over. That was the real crash, not the plane 4 wheeling off-road after overrunning the runway. I assume there were some kind of arresting barriers but if those wheels were from the nose gear the barriers sure didn't do much. The moments before this video were probably boring with the plane simply continuing on past the runway. The final impact was the money shot. Another angle would have been Hollywood perfect but in real life you take what you can get.

Re:Exaggeration

[PNutts]

The real question though is, did they fine the pilot for littering?

Considering the pilot was killed, no. A fifth person died so keep the jokes coming.

Re:Exaggeration

[AK Marc]

What, too soon?

Re:Exaggeration

[thetoadwarrior]

You're right, you don't get to see it but you get to see the guy probably shit himself and he probably feels like the luckiest guy in Russia.

Re:Exaggeration

[Anonymous Coward]

If you have to ask, you have no sensibility.

20 years to retirement huh. Good Luck.

Re:Exaggeration

[HornWumpus]

Never too soon. Got to be a joke in 'Red Wings' (Red Wings are traditionally awarded for chewing a woman on her monthly).

Re:Exaggeration

[Anonymous Coward]

That rape victim in India just died. The worldwide hilarity is just tremendous tonight!

Re:Exaggeration

[Anonymous Coward]

Got to be a joke in 'Red Wings' (Red Wings are traditionally awarded for chewing a woman on her monthly).

Well, there isn't now, so thank you for that.

Re:Exaggeration

[rmdingler]

Never too soon. Just wasn't too funny.

Re:Exaggeration

[swalve]

You can see the plane crash into the side of the road on the right side of the screen at about 0:09.

Every Russian has a dash cam because....

[Above]

Every Russian has a dash cam because the insurance company and courts there have a history of not paying out a dime unless you have proof. Where Americans seem to think in a "reasonable doubt" methodology from our courts, in Russia it's apparently "any doubt at all" and you lose. So if someone hits you while you're parked and they show up and say you ran into them you'd better have video or witnesses or something or no money for you!

Other countries seem to have systems that skew that way, and thus more dash cams (China, Taiwan, Korea), but not the quantity of videos. I think that's due to the bad Russian driving, there's simply more wild videos coming out of Russia than anywhere else!

Over at Jalopnik there is an entire section devoted to Russian dash cams. If you waste the next few hours watching them all it's not my fault!

Re:Every Russian has a dash cam because....

[Anonymous Coward]

Every Russian has a dash cam because the insurance company and courts there have a history of not paying out a dime unless you have proof. Where Americans seem to think in a "reasonable doubt" methodology from our courts, in Russia it's apparently "any doubt at all" and you lose. So if someone hits you while you're parked and they show up and say you ran into them you'd better have video or witnesses or something or no money for you!

Other countries seem to have systems that skew that way, and thus more dash cams (China, Taiwan, Korea), but not the quantity of videos.

That sounds pretty crazy.

Car accidents never go to court in Australia, one of the two drivers always freely admits to being at-fault and their insurance company always pays out (or else the two insurance companies will sue each other).

If both drivers claim to be innocent, then it will go to court — and the punishment for lying to a police officer about events during the crash will be so harsh, nobody within a few degrees of separation will ever dare try it again. Jail time for sure.

If possible, and if there are no injuries, we'll even try to avoid letting insurance companies or police get involved at all. Better to shake hands, give the other person enough cash to repair the car, and walk away from it. Insurance companies are slow, it takes for ever to get the repairs authorised. And the cops are likely to hand one of you a stiff penalty (and maybe even defend yourself in court to avoid loosing your license) for "failing to maintain proper control of a vehicle" or some such.

If the at-fault driver doesn't have insurance (medical insurance is mandatory but vehicle damage insurance is not), then they'll definitely want to keep it under the radar or else the other driver's insurance company will fleece them.

Re:Every Russian has a dash cam because....

[AmiMoJo]

I wanted to have a system that notices when my parked car is bumped and takes photos/videos of everything around it. Then I realized that if someone dented it opening their door (car park spaces keep getting smaller, cars keep getting bigger) it wouldn't capture their number plate and would thus be useless.

A simpler option would be to just record any movement events with an accelerometer. By noting the exact time of the bump you could then request CCTV footage of the incident from the car park operator (law says they must hand it over for a £10 admin fee).

Re:Every Russian has a dash cam because....

[Anonymous Coward]

Or just realise that you regularly leave your car unattended outside, at the mercy of nature and people in the area, and don't worry about small dents and scratches. Leave the dents there and just polish off the scratches to prevent rust. Cars need to look shiny and pristine only if you're foolish enough to believe everything the marketing department tells you.

Re:Every Russian has a dash cam because....

[PNutts]

Or just realise that you regularly leave your car unattended outside, at the mercy of nature and people in the area, and don't worry about small dents and scratches. Leave the dents there and just polish off the scratches to prevent rust. Cars need to look shiny and pristine only if you're foolish enough to believe everything the marketing department tells you.

My car got bumped a few days ago and now the backup object sensor is giving "false positives". Yeah, first world problems, but now I have to decide if the beep is bogus or my kid is behind the car. I'll have to fix it $$$ or turn it off and validate about what's behind me like I did for 31 years and humans have done for about 250 years but that's one of the safety features that made me buy this particular car after spawning. I don't give a hoot about the missing paint on the bumper or the four year old dent on the side, it's not an iPhone.

Re:Every Russian has a dash cam because....

[Anonymous Coward]

Or just realise that you regularly leave your car unattended outside, at the mercy of nature and people in the area, and don't worry about small dents and scratches. Leave the dents there and just polish off the scratches to prevent rust. Cars need to look shiny and pristine only if you're foolish enough to believe everything the marketing department tells you.

Don't be so American, in some countries, like Japan, it's actually illegal to drive a car that has a dent in it.

Re:Every Russian has a dash cam because....

[Anonymous Coward]

Not necessarily useless. A system could be setup to continue recording for a few minutes after the event that triggered it. Provided the set of cameras recording has a good forward or backward viewing angle, there would still be a high possibility of to getting a plate number from the offender's car.

I also very much want one of these systems, and am disappointed that the current marketplace has failed to provide it. Not necessarily for stupid parking lot dings (which can usually be avoided if you don't mind walking a bit more), but to catch footage of that asshole teenager that gets their jollies from vandalizing people's cars at night. I'd like the police to have their picture, and once they end up in court, see the look on their face when over $3000 in criminal damage (that's what it costs for a proper re-paint here) is considered a felony in my state.

Am I vindictive much? Maybe. But I'm tired of the bullshit when I don't have the money to fix stuff that shouldn't happen in the first place. Why shouldn't I be allowed to have (somewhat) nice things just because somebody else wants to be an ass-clown?

Re:Every Russian has a dash cam because....

[WGFCrafty]

Wow, you know it's messed up when they have a term just for fatal accidents "Last seconds alive" or whatever..... http://jalopnik.com/5969514/the-craziest-russian-dash-cam-videos-of-2012/gallery/1?tag=russian-dash-cams

Re:Every Russian has a dash cam because....

[Sir Lurkalot]

Or just realise that you regularly leave your car unattended outside, at the mercy of nature and people in the area, and don't worry about small dents and scratches. Leave the dents there and just polish off the scratches to prevent rust. Cars need to look shiny and pristine only if you're foolish enough to believe everything the marketing department tells you.

Don't be so American, in some countries, like Japan, it's actually illegal to drive a car that has a dent in it.

Citations please.

Re:Every Russian has a dash cam because....

[HornWumpus]

What? It wasn't a good idea to put an expensive part into a 'bumper'? Who could have guessed?

Nav systems, backup cams etc are exactly like stereos, you are a fool to pay the OEM their price.

Re:Every Russian has a dash cam because....

[Anonymous Coward]

I spelled "realised" with an "s" not a "z", so clearly I'm not American (and the OP mentioned a price in pounds so they're not American either). I've also lived in countries on 3 different continents, and everywhere seen and driven cars myself with big dents on the side so clearly it's not an American-centric point of view.

You're just an obtuse and racist fuck that's wasting our bandwidth and oxygen.

Re:Every Russian has a dash cam because....

[Gogo0]

this is either BS or never enforced. there are plenty of dinged up vehicles on the road. i see lots of drifting cars with plenty of hits on them, some even with front bumpers zip-tied to the frame for easy removal if they hit something on the track. also plenty of old 'work horse' vehicles on the road that have plenty of marks. JCI inspection (Japanese Compulsory auto Insurance) does not take into account minor aesthetics, only correct operation and safety.

japanese do take very good care of their cars for the most part, though.

Re:Every Russian has a dash cam because....

[Smauler]

It is more than pretty crazy - it's totally insane.

We've got a system of mandatory car insurance in the UK - but there are laws about perverting the course of justice that hit much much bigger penalties.

If you have an accident with another car or person, you're legally required to report it to the police - no one does, though, in minor incidents. People just swap insurance details, or offer to pay directly for damage if in the wrong (I've done this in the past to avoid screwing up no claims bonus, even if the accident was 50/50) and let the companies work it out. You can contest it later. The police do not want to be involved with minor shunts.

Getting the police involved is generally bad for you, the insurance companies, and the police. Obviously, sometimes it is necessary.

Re:Every Russian has a dash cam because....

[swillden]

Where Americans seem to think in a "reasonable doubt" methodology from our courts

Actually, accidents are handled in civil court, so it's a "preponderance of the evidence" methodology.

Re:Every Russian has a dash cam because....

[Smauler]

Dents and scratches cause rust, which in modern cars undermines the structural integrity of the car after a while. Polishing them off does not help entirely, and is a hassle anyway. Unless you replace your car every few years, this is a major issue.

I own a Honda Integra Type R DC2 I bought second hand for £2500. It's nearly 15 years old. I'm relatively proud of it, I think it's a great car, and I do not want small dents and scratches. I don't believe everything the marketing department told me, or I'd have a newer Integra.

I do leave it outside quite a lot - that does not give people the right to dent or scratch it.

Re:Every Russian has a dash cam because....

[Cruciform]

Any video in which the speakers are not obviously American is tagged as a Russian dashcam vid.
I've seen Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Austrian, etc.. in those compilation.

Re:Every Russian has a dash cam because....

[Immerman]

Entropy happens. It's certainly impolite to dent or scratch someone else's property, but if you park a large obstacle in a public place it's pretty unreasonable to expect it to remain unmarred indefinitely. As for compromising structural integrity, well it takes a pretty major scratch to completely penetrate the paint so that rust can form, and it's pretty easy to fix. Moreover body panels rarely add significant structural integrity, and the frame can generally only be scratched from within/underneath the vehicle, where any damage is almost certainly due to you or your mechanic.

Re:Every Russian has a dash cam because....

[Alioth]

Not for a while. Any car worth owning for some time has had a galvanized body.

My car is 17 years old, it has a few scratches (one caused by hitting a rock hidden in long grass doing a nasty dent down the left side) but no rust at all - despite living in an environment laced with salt water (a very windy island, where the sea regularly comes crashing over the sea wall on one road I frequently use) and where it can get cold enough where the roads get gritted and salted.

Re:Every Russian has a dash cam because....

[lgw]

I don't think Chevy ever sold a Citation in Japan, but you can have all you like, with my blessing!

Re:Every Russian has a dash cam because....

[Richy_T]

Those sensors are supposed to be an aid. You are still supposed to be making sure it's safe to back up anyway.

Over reactive driver - added to the tragedy

[hottoh]

Doing nothing was a better option. Locking the brakes and turning the wheel was not so good.

Re:Over reactive driver - added to the tragedy

[AK Marc]

Added what to the tragedy? The cam-driver didn't do any additional damage to anything, and the driver in front didn't lock up their brakes or turn the wheel, as far as I could tell. And based on US data, locked wheels stop much faster than the average American driver (why cars like Mercedes are adding brake assist, where a quick application of the brake triggers a stronger stopping force than requested because American drivers don't stop nearly as fast as possible in their cars, rarely beyond what you get sliding along on melted rubber.

Re:Over reactive driver - added to the tragedy

[Lost Race]

The driver lost control because the car was hit by flying debris not visible on the dash-cam. After that he actually did a pretty good job of not making it worse.

Re:Over reactive driver - added to the tragedy

[Anonymous Coward]

Like to steer much? Because you can't when the wheels aren't turning.

Re:Over reactive driver - added to the tragedy

[AK Marc]

You didn't answer how locking up the wheels in this case added to the tragedy. Lying hyperbole much?

Re:Over reactive driver - added to the tragedy

[whoever57]

why cars like Mercedes are adding brake assist, where a quick application of the brake triggers a stronger stopping force than requested because American drivers don't stop nearly as fast as possible in their cars, rarely beyond what you get sliding along on melted rubber.

Not just expensive cars. It is (or at least, was) an option on the Nissan Versa (at one time the cheapest car in the USA).

Re:Over reactive driver - added to the tragedy

[Ryanrule]

The driver lost control because the car was hit by flying debris not visible on the dash-cam. After that he actually did a pretty good job of not making it worse.

Yeah for the serious. As if anyone here would react better when a motherfuckin plane crashes in front if them. JFC!

Re:Over reactive driver - added to the tragedy

[Anonymous Coward]

Ladies and Gentlemen, one Moral High Ground, going now on eBay! Buy It Now for just $0.20 including postage. Domestic shipping only.

Re:Over reactive driver - added to the tragedy

[Anonymous Coward]

He didn't lock the brakes, he was hit in the rear passenger side with large debris. You'd have heard it in the video if you'd have had your sound on. It caused his rear end to skid to the left, so he steers into the skid to keep the car going relatively straight. Good work by the driver. After all that, hitting another plane part lying on the road doesn't even matter.

Re:Over reactive driver - added to the tragedy

[hottoh]

Watch the video. The driver appears to abruptly slow and steer out of the way of debris. Not slowing, and not steering likely would cause less damage to their car. Perhaps I am hearing tires sliding and it is something else.

Re:Over reactive driver - added to the tragedy

[hottoh]

Ha ha you 'mod' folks are so funny.

Make a comment about what you see and hear and you are marked a troll.

Dashcams

[zyzko]

Apparently, dashcams are as popular as GPS devices in Russia, and you can get a basic model for an equivalent of about 40 euros, and an advanced model is as pricey as an advanced GPS is (with nice features). And the reason to get one can be seen in Youtube, if you are pretty much run into by a car with government plates you better have some hard evidence that you were not the culprit. As the traffic is often worse than in southern Europe (where there is a lot of honking and hand-waving, even "pushing it through" but people are used to minor dents in cars in cities and they don't often care) compared to the fact that there is a lot of high-priced cars in Russia and insurance money is big factor, plus as an added bonus police can be corrupt and the one with biggest handout on the scene gets the money from the insurance because of the police report.

I live near a pretty busy skiing resort in Finland where there are a lot of Russian tourists this time of year. Most of them do drive responsibly. And I urge you to do so here abroad (we have a pretty decent police who can write accurate reports if there is an accident and are not for sale) as well as home. There is no rush here, just relax on the Sunday-traffic off the resort. Don't be a jerk in traffic, really.

And what's with dashcams in every Russian car?

[AK Marc]

Obviously to record that the crash of the landing gear into your car wasn't your fault.

Front car ESP?

[cachimaster]

I wonder, did the driver of the car hit by the wheel had remarkable driving skills or the car was stabilized by the ESP?

Re:Front car ESP?

[krovisser]

His forward velocity probably helped him out a lot.

I think we can all agree

[nimbius]

this could have been a lot worse. Air Canada would have charged them a service fee for shuttling them to the nearest ground transportation.

Re:I think we can all agree

[ciurana]

Are you thinking Ryan Air, perhaps?

Re:I think we can all agree

[Myopic]

Ryan Air would have assessed an extra-legroom fee to the people in the row that became the front row of seats.

Ryan Air would have charged the two-dollar bathroom fee to everyone who shit their pants.

Ryan Air would have charged a rebooking fee to anyone who missed their connection.

Ryan Air would ask everyone to kindly piss on the fire because there is no emergency crew on staff.

Russian dashcams explained

[Beamboom]

... by a Russian (written in English), here: http://www.animalnewyork.com/2012/russian-dashcam/ Highly recommended to read - it's a fascinating article, with several other video examples too.

Re:Amit4u.com

[Anonymous Coward]

As if bots weren't bad enough, now we have this! Get off slashdot!

Re:Amit4u.com

[Anonymous Coward]

You'd think if they were smart they would parse the URLS....

Plane crashes on video

[OzPeter]

It's not like people haven't crashed planes to see what happens and filmed it from all sorts of angles.

Re:Plane crashes on video

[Myopic]

Great link, thanks.

Recently I also enjoyed a docu on Netflix about plane crashes. It was scary and fascinating.

Why clean is good

[SuperKendall]

Cars need to look shiny and pristine only if you're foolish enough to believe everything the marketing department tells you.

Never heard of the broken window theory, have you?

It works on the owner too. It's nothing to do with marketing, I keep my car washed regularly because if you care enough to keep the car clean, you are also thinking about other issues - like should I get the oil changed yet, should I ignore that noise etc.

It also helps you notice things like scratches earlier so you can take care of them, otherwise you might lose the car earlier than you should to rust. That's simply wasteful.

Also people are more likely when parking next to a clean car to avoid dinging it, no mater how old the car is otherwise. You keeping your car clean makes it less likely to suffer minor injuries.

Re:Why clean is good

[whoever57]

It also helps you notice things like scratches earlier so you can take care of them, otherwise you might lose the car earlier than you should to rust. That's simply wasteful.

Depends on where you live. In many parts of the world cars don't rust quickly enough to matter even if the paint gets scraped.

Re:Why clean is good

[number11]

It also helps you notice things like scratches earlier so you can take care of them, otherwise you might lose the car earlier than you should to rust. That's simply wasteful.

Depends on where you live. In many parts of the world cars don't rust quickly enough to matter even if the paint gets scraped.

And in other parts of the world (like much of the US north) they pour so much salt on the roads in the winter that it isn't going to make any damn difference, unless you're touching up those scratches on the underside and hard-to-get-at places, where the salt works its magic. The body will probably last 15 years and then rust out, no matter how much you touch up and wax the outside surfaces, because that's not where the killer rust occurs.

Re:Why clean is good

[Richy_T]

I have news for you. When the kid in the back seat of the SUV with the pointy corners on the rear doors swings it open, they don't care what your car looks like or even if it's there.

Other than parking away from other vehicles, the two best things you can to do avoid dings is to avoid cars with children and avoid ratty looking cars. Oh, and keep an eye out for those damn pointy-cornered doors.

Re:Why clean is good

[Richy_T]

Things are a lot better than they were though. My old MkII Ford Escort didn't have galvanized body panels or plastic wheel well liners and the doors were almost falling off by the time I got rid of it (not to mention replacing the sills and rear wheel arches)

amazing that there are not more cams at airports

[WindBourne]

Seriously, cams are pretty cheap. I would think that somebody with a decent inexpensive system would be able to put up loads of cams all over runways, etc. This is not for use in insurances, but more for NTSB, and the equivalence at other nations. Basically, it is useful to see why/how an airplane loses control. And keep in mind that the vast majority of accidents occur at landing/take-off.

A row of coach-class seats?

[damn_registrars]

I might never complain about poor seating again, at least the last time I flew I arrived inside the airplane.

Birds do it, Russians do it, you would too....

[Anonymous Coward]

The deal in Russia is that it is very hard to make a claim for insurance money for your vehicle if it is involved in an accident, Insurance companies in Russia easily get out of paying by blaming the driver who is making a claim. To get out of this, Russians have mounted cams in their cars. This way they can go to court and get reimbursement for insurance claims very easily. If you do not have video you will not get any money from the company who has issued a policy on your vehicle. Now with all the vehicles having cams you can see the results of accidents, thefts etc.

Video not available

[Anonymous Coward]

It says "this video is not available in your location". That's offending.

Re:Video not available

[Anonymous Coward]

It says "this video is not available in your location". That's offending.

Obviously you need to move to where the video lives. :)

video of the Concorde Flight 4590 crash

[girlinatrainingbra]

Even almost thirteen years ago in the year 2000, there were enough people with cellphones on them at all times who could take pictures and with videocameras on them as they drove people to/from the airport that some interesting videos and images were captured even then.
.
-- the Concorde crash after takeoff at Charles De Gaulle airport; has footage of the flames coming out of the engines
-- whenever there's a light-airplane or experimental airplane crash that occurs soon after takeoff (i.e. right near the airport runway), there's often another pilot or family member who captures videocamera or cellphone video footage of the incident (an incident in Kearney Mesa about 3 months ago)
-- whenever a crash occurs at flight shows or flight contests, there are often multiple videos available taken by onlookers and viewers of the events (see Oshkosh, almost every other year there will be a crash)

WTF? Busted date format.

[Anonymous Coward]

Russia is in the USA these days? Or all dash cams have only broken date formats?

God how I hate bloody imperial measures and fucking retarded arsebackwards date formats!

Re:amazing that there are not more cams at airport

[gr8_phk]

That's what the black box is for. It records all the interesting sensor data - enough to reconstruct any view you want via CG. The only thing it can't tell you is if anything is already missing prior to the crash like at Reno last year. But I agree, an automated system to record every departure and landing from a couple angles shouldn't be very expensive.

Working video link

[subreality]

Youtube pulled it, but LiveLeak has the goods: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=16d_1356820592

Re:Working video link

[stepdown]

That might just be your country, link in the summary is still working in the UK at least.

ABS

[dutchwhizzman]

Modern cars don't lock wheels, they have ABS. Then again, poor people don't drive modern cars and not a lot of people learn to drive their car properly, world wide.

Re:ABS

[Anonymous Coward]

[.sig quote] I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?

All over the highway, right behind the guy who took the video with the dashcam!

I'm still trying to figure out

[Anonymous Coward]

Why flight data recorders don't also include high definition video streams from every imaginable angle. It's not as if the technology doesn't exist.

Re:I'm still trying to figure out

[nessman]

Pilot's unions put the kibosh on that.

Once in a while I'll find a good CVR recording - makes for some interesting listening. Seeing the terror in a pilot's face as he's about to eat dirt would be priceless.

Here's one from 2006 where a business jet clipped a 737. The 737 crashed - the business jet landed safely.

http://www.firstpost.com/topic/organization/boeing-new-embraer-legacy-600-business-jet-n600xl-cockpit-voice-recording-part-12-video-a5DPElgPpWI-692-1.html

In Soviet Russia...

[KrazyDave]

...plane catches *you*

incriminate me?

[swell]

Can the police (in some jurisdiction) subpoena the video when it may give evidence against me? Can they punish me for destroying the evidence? Can I hide the video unit so that they won't know I have it? Do any of these units broadcast a signal that can be detected by law enforcement or others? Does your chewing gum lose its flavor on the bedpost over night?

disclaimer: I'm a good boy and haven't had an incident in decades, but just in case...

Re:incriminate me?

[Myopic]

Yes, absolutely they can do that (in the USA).

Two words: Car Computer

[Anonymous Coward]

"I'd hate to have someone entirely at fault for hitting me try to claim contributory negligence on my part based on my own recorded evidence".

Well I hope you drive a pre 1980's car then, because if a fatality is involved the authorities will take a dump from your car computer which will tell all.

So you really don't have a reason to be paranoid, because your car's computer is there to rat you out anyhow.

Re:Two words: Car Computer

[ganjadude]

This is only slightly informative. the ODB 2 sensors were put in after MY1995. Black boxes in cars are in 99% of cars today, and have been on GM cars for the past 10-15 years. pre 80s will protect you, but there are millions of cars on the roads post 80 that do not have this information available.

NPR news ran a story on Dash cams in Russia.

[Anonymous Coward]

Simply put it is because of organized crime or street gangs, or scam artists that walk in front of a moving car on purpose to then blackmail the driver into paying them off, in any case if you do not pay, they will drag you out and beat you, even damn near kill you, steal your car or smash up your car and steal whatever is in it.

The police like here in this country seemingly do not care about the, payoffs, beatings, and thefts, and the citizens who witnessed the crime refuse to say anything or they simply do not care and it is not worth there time when they know the police are not going to do anything, or it is just about impossible to catch the man/men who committed the crimes.

Accidents are another reason, drivers who were not responsible for an accident do not have to worry about getting screwed over by the police, judges and insurance companies (IE they keep there drivers license, do not pay out the ass for fines).

GO on youtube and you will see the way these people drive, I find it somewhat amusing myself.....

App?

[jago25_98]

Seeing as you can get android tablets for $60 these days and many of us own a spare droid, can't we engineer our own solution out of an app?

Is there a way to make it less smash& grabbable though?

Also a factor:

Sounds like the cigarette lighter "accessory socket" is a permanent live, rather than switched live like they used to be.

So instead of coming on and off with the ignition, it's permanently on meaning the camera needs to be unplugged when not in use.

The trick is now finding a switched live to hardwire into.

Re:App?

[PyroMosh]

Regarding the accessory socket: Depends on the car. And some cars give you the option of behaving in either way.

My CTS actually has a fuse in the fuse box that serves as a jumper between two positions. In the first position, the socket is as you describe that you expect it: On only when the key is in the "run" position. In the other position, the socket is on continuously, only switching off when the key moves to the "start" position (to protect against surges).

The car also has battery rundown protection, but I don't know the details of this. All I know is that it occasionally turns to dome light off when I leave it on the "on" position overnight, presumably when the battery reached a certain threshold. I don't see any reason it couldn't govern the accessory socket in the same way, but I do not know if it does.

Re:Dash cams are in Russia because.. Russia's Russ

[Anonymous Coward]

"No wrecks in any other country have anything on Russia. Seriously."

Never been to India I take it?

Re:amazing that there are not more cams at airport

[WindBourne]

The older black boxes do not give everything (not as many sensors on the crafts). Regardless, simple camera can do a lot.

In Putin's Russia . . .

[Latent Heat]

Lame-joke telling AC . . . moderates you!

This is a Cool Idea!

[LifesABeach]

The feed-clip looked like a hollywood special effects scene. Sometimes what I see from my drivers seat amazes me, sometimes; others times I'm thankful it's not me messing up.

Self Incrimination

[sjbe]

Disclaimer: IANAL...

Can the police (in some jurisdiction) subpoena the video when it may give evidence against me?

Most likely yes.

Can they punish me for destroying the evidence?

Before the subpoena? No. After the subpoena? Probably yes. If they find you destroyed evidence after it was subpoenaed, there are cases where they are allowed to presume that the evidence destroyed was incriminating. I'm not sure how far they can take it but if you destroy the evidence it is better that they don't find out it was you who did the destruction.

Can I hide the video unit so that they won't know I have it?

You are generally not required to provide evidence to incriminate yourself though if it is discovered later it may end up working against you worse than if they found it early on.

Does your chewing gum lose its flavor on the bedpost over night?

Depends on the flavor. :-)

Re:Dash cams are in Russia because.. Russia's Russ

[TheLink]

Barring hitting a train, can you actually move fast enough in Indian traffic to be in a spectacular wreck? ;)

I'd suspect the drivers in China might be "competitive" in this area. It's pretty bad there.

Re:Audio recording

[nullchar]

Do these dash cams have options to disable audio recording?