Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Moscow Plane Crash Caught On Passerby's Dash Cam

Posted by timothy on from the tape-it-all-let-god-sort-it-out dept.

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?"

30 of 253 comments (clear)

  1. One word: Lawsuits by Kid+Zero · · Score: 4, Insightful

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

    1. Re:One word: Lawsuits by sabri · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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".

      --
      I'm not a complete idiot... Some parts are missing.
    2. Re:One word: Lawsuits by hawguy · · Score: 4

      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.

    3. Re:One word: Lawsuits by Mononoke · · Score: 5, Informative
      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.

      --
      NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
    4. Re:One word: Lawsuits by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Funny

      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.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    5. Re:One word: Lawsuits by immaterial · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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).

    6. Re:One word: Lawsuits by CaptainLard · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

    7. Re:One word: Lawsuits by JWSmythe · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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.

      --
      Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
    8. Re:One word: Lawsuits by Smauler · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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.

  2. Frosty piss? by Bearhouse · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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...

    1. Re:Frosty piss? by dotancohen · · Score: 4, Funny

      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.

      --
      It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
  3. Dashcams by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

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

    1. Re:Dashcams by CdBee · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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....

      --
      I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
    2. Re:Dashcams by ultranova · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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.

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

    3. Re:Dashcams by prisma · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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.

    4. Re:Dashcams by Loki_666 · · Score: 5, Informative

      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.

  4. Dash car cams by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    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

  5. In Soviet Russia... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    In Soviet Russia, plane boards YOU!

  6. Dash cams are in Russia because.. Russia's Russia. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

  7. have you never seen this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

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

    1. Re:have you never seen this? by mvar · · Score: 3, Insightful

      shit that's insane

  8. Every Russian has a dash cam because.... by Above · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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!

    1. Re:Every Russian has a dash cam because.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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.

  9. Dashcams by zyzko · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

  10. I think we can all agree by nimbius · · Score: 3, Funny

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

    --
    Good people go to bed earlier.
  11. Re:Over reactive driver - added to the tragedy by AK+Marc · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

    --
    Learn to love Alaska
  12. Re:Over reactive driver - added to the tragedy by Lost+Race · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

  13. Re:Exaggeration by PNutts · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.

  14. Re:Exaggeration by PNutts · · Score: 3

    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.

  15. Two words: Car Computer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    "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.