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My Dash Cam Footage
About 30 miles after my fuel stop on Monday I had a very near miss and less than six minutes later, a very unfortunate direct hit. My dash cam caught it all.
The near miss was a pick up truck that moved over in front of us and then slammed on his brakes. In reviewing the dash cam, it really looks like he wanted me to rear end him right next to a policeman. There is no way for me to know his motivation but that is what it looks like. Maybe he just panicked.
IF he was looking for a lawsuit, I am afraid he may not have been alive to collect and I may not have been alive to lose all my earthly possessions.
These pictures are screen grabs from my dash cam so they are not great pictures. You can see we are coming up on a semi in the right lane and a pick up truck in the left lane.
By the time I am up on the semi truck to pass it, the pick up had pulled into the right lane and is now moving back into the left lane. So far so good.
He is driving slower than me when he moves into the left lane and you can see his exhaust in the picture below as he puts his foot on the throttle. The exhaust is very clear in the video.
You can also see the policeman on the shoulder in front of him with a truck pulled over. This is about the time that I saw the flashing lights on the side of the road and realize the semi directly to my right and slightly behind me will need to get in. Thankfully, I have already eased my foot off the accelerator.
Right after he punches the gas in the picture above, he puts on his brakes hard! The exhaust can still be seen. The police and truck on the side of the road in the two pictures give you some sense of distance.
I put my foot on the brake hard and my hand on the horn hard. You can not see in the dash cam but the semi truck that I was passing was directly next to me in the right lane and there was no place for me to go. He was also slamming on his brakes. I figure he thought the guy was coming right back into his lane and the last thing he wanted to do was push the guy into a policeman.
As you can see, I was moving to the shoulder although it was very rough and it dropped off several inches a few feet into it. The picture below is just after he let off his brake. He did not speed up or get in the right lane until after he had passed the policeman.
I was probably two feet from eating his bumper. The dash cam GPS said I dropped 23 MPH from the picture where he hit the gas and the picture above. That is pretty good for nearly 50,000 pounds!
Less than six minutes later I had a very unfortunate direct hit. I will spare you all of the details and the graphic pictures but a dog was preparing to walk into a semi truck to my left and I was moving into the right lane to give him plenty of room do it. He changed his mind at the last moment and it was the worst decision in his life.
I pulled over immediately and checked the bus and car for damage and gave my heart a chance to catch up. Whew!
He did not survive all the bus wheels on the passenger side and the car, as well as the truck behind me. Honestly it broke my heart. I stayed beside the road for a while until I could drive again. Two baby heart attacks in six minutes were almost too much for me.
It was a bad few minutes in an otherwise great day to drive. I am very happy I invested in a camera. If I had hit the truck I know the video would have come in handy.Davy
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10 Replies
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Like you I am cynical when people do the unexpected and it appears they want us to hit them.
My guess is the pickup driver was not evil but stupid. Drivers today are getting dumber and less capable thanks to their total reliance on devices intended to replace their driving skills, along with devices to distract them. Stability control, ABS, automatic headlights, collision warning lights etc. are all intended to help the driver so now people lacking gray matter tend to live longer, thus clogging our highways with stupid.
To add to our frustration these people who all think their driving skills are excellent feel they can text, talk on the phone, apply makeup, and play with their GPS while they are driving. They can’t.
They can’t merge, they have no ability to anticipate how their actions affect the other driver, they pull in too close, and have no clue that 50,000 plus pounds of metal somehow cannot stop as fast as their 4,000 pounds.
You cannot fix stupid. The worst part is it is a sneaky handicap because not a single stupid driver is aware he suffers from the ailment.
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Davy –
It is unfortunate that we have to resort to dash cams to protect ourselves from the idiots on the roads. We are in the process of purchasing a dash cam and are interested to know which one you have. It appears that it works very well! Would you recommend the one you have or a different one?
June
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You handled it all very well Davy….
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June,
I am using the Panorama G Street Guardian SGZC12SG with a 64 Gig card. I purchased on Amazon in January of 2015. It has GPS coordinates and speed built in and uses a memory card. I film on a low setting and it will store days and days of footage, making it handy for leaving on all the time, even when parked. We recently left the bus at a church in Texas for several days and I left the camera on. I scanned the stored footage and it came on and recorded for a few minutes anytime some one drove around the back of the church in view of the camera.
There are several that are cheaper and they have been discussed on here and others here are using them. I am sure they are great. This one was recommended to me by some one that had one and I really like it. It looks like the price on Amazon has went up some since I bought it though.
Thanks, Tom. That is high praise coming from a trucker with a few million miles under his belt. I was just thanking God I did not hit him. It would give new meaning to RAM truck.Davy
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I have a WheelWitness that replaced my original for two reasons. First its field of view is 170 degrees which picks up vehicles almost as soon as their nose is passing ahead of me on either side. the second benefit is its depth is minimal so it fits very nicely on the windshield and will not interfere with the front privacy shades.
It does not record sound or have GPS and that is my preference. It records only when there is power and I have it wired to a “key on” circuit. It over writes previously recorded video and I prefer only a short time period of recording so someone viewing what is recorded has less of my driving available on video to use against me. My interest is only the few minutes or seconds covering an incident. We prefer to not record voice because of the same reason so what I say is not used against me. I want the video to speak for itself.
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I have the same Wheel Witness as Jon and have it hard wired to the ignition master switch, that way if I want it to be on while parked it keeps running. I wouldn’t be without one these days as Davy has just shown.
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The clearence was a big factor for me as well, Jon. I did not want to remove the whole thing to let the front shade down. This one will record sound if wanted but I leave it off.
I drove into LA yesterday. Wow! I need a whole lot more than a camera in that traffic! I am sure my 60′ slowed some folks down because the last thing I want to do here is hurry! Amazing traffic but a beautiful place.
Davy
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I am not sure that leaving audio off is a help, and may be a hindrance. Of course, no one will be surprised if they hear you yelling “oh, s4!t” if you are about to hit something, but unless you say “I am going to purposefully ram this guy right in the arse” you are probably ok. On the other hand, you can use the audio to record the tag number or other details of something that may not be readily apparent on video only. Mine is on.
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I prefer no audio and no GPS. I also prefer a shorter time before the camera over writes previous video.
If we have to use the dash cam card to defend ourselves I want the focus to be on the event and not what I say or how I drive leading up to the event. The longer the time of video on the card the more likely my driving can be brought into question. I don’t want short durations of speed in excess of the limit or my driving habits to be part of the discussion but I do want what someone else did to be the focus. A GPS can be used to show my speed, the audio may record my attention to something other than my driving or comments made in jest that can be misconstrued.
If you drive 5 MPH over the speed limit do you want that easily proven with a GPS or a segment of the video showing you passing traffic? Do you want a record of the cell phone call you were on prior to rear ending a car that cut in too close?
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Both valid points, Jon, and concerns of mine as well. Too much information about us, no matter how innocent, in the wrong hands can and will be used against us.
I can flip the sound on if I want to record information but I prefer to leave it off. I do like the long record time since I leave my camera on in many places we are parked for security. It some instances of vandalism or theft, it may be a few days or at least several hours, before I would know I need to review the footage. IF I set it for a shorter overwrite the footage I wanted might be gone. Of course, most folks probably do not use their dash cam for security as I do.
In both instances the other day (the truck and the dog) I hit the save event button and those 3-5 minutes segments were saved and the rest could be overwriten.
Davy
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