Dash Cams Can Save You In Accident Court
Not all car accidents have an obvious fault. Some situations may have damage that shows where and how the accident occurred, but some ambiguous accidents can make it easy for the other legal party to deny everything while blaming you. There are even insurance fraud rings who know how to stage an accident and leave the blame squarely on your shoulders. To protect yourself, understand the risks of ambiguous accident situations and ways that a dash cam and an attorney can help.
Accidents With Lots Of Question Marks
What is an obvious fault accident? Rear-ending a car would seem obvious since you should be leaving distance between yourself and the other car. There is still a chance that the other vehicle may reverse by accident, or their brakes may fail while going up a hill. It's unlikely and far from impossible, but without proof, you have the harder job of proving your innocence.
There are also car accident scams such as the swoop and squat scam, which boxes a vehicle into a vulnerable position and causes the driver to rear end a scammer vehicle full of passengers. Unless someone is specifically watching out for the scam--which can be difficult because of the need to pay attention the other parts of the road--you may not have anyone to vouch for your innocence.
Other accidents such as being side-swiped by another vehicle can be hard to prove because the damage is ambiguous. Unless another vehicle can testify on your behalf, it's a fairly even chance that you or the other driver was at fault. This can be fraudulent or a lie after an accident, and a scammer may have fake witnesses to testify on their behalf.
What you need are a dash camera and an attorney.
Dash Cams And Legal Advice For Your Legal Protection
If you can record the events of your drive, you will have a better point of view to either point out that you were in the right or that you had no way to avoid the accident.
Mount at least one dash cam pointing towards the windshield. This will cover you for most accidents, and only side-swipes and people running into your rear will be left out. Adding more cameras for the rear and each side is possible, but at least one is necessary.
The evidence on modern dash cams is usually saved on an SD (secure digital) card and can be copied in almost any computer, but you should think about ways to get evidence to a lawyer as soon as possible. Some smartphones have side-mounted card slots to make insertion easy, while others may require removing the battery and turning the phone on and off.
From there, you can text or email an attorney. Make sure that your phone company's data plan can support the video sizes (which should be noted on the dash cam's specifications, but you can call the manufacturer for more help) and that you have an attorney's information ahead of time.
Contact an auto accident attorney to discuss more ways to protect yourself after an accident.
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