Dashcams support the proactive casualty reduction work of the police. NSF[TWFox]

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

Video clips of dangerous driving, including of a car narrowly missing oncoming traffic, have been released by police, to encourage drivers to share their dashcam footage.

The Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire forces wanted to show drivers that handing over footage can lead to prosecutions.

More than 800 Notice of Intended Prosecution letters have been sent out by the forces during 2021 as a result of the videos.

Their joint camera, tickets and investigations manager, Amanda Wrate, said: "The forces are committed to reducing poor driving behaviour and making the roads a safer place for all users.

"Dashcams support the proactive casualty reduction work of the police by acting as an additional pair of eyes."

I must admit when I had a similar incident with someone overtaking coming the opposite direction on a blind bend and causing me to just avoid him and and narrowly avoid ending up in a ditch (it 100% relied on me making that manoeuvre and I left tyre tracks right on the edge of the ditch) I would have loved to send footage to the police.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-59657711

 

[Housey]

We live in a world today it seems, where there are lots of people who are sinless because no one has them on camera. They are free to cast stones from their seat of perfection because ‘pics or it didn’t happen’.

For me this is a bad thing as we all **** up at moments in time.

 

[Deleted member 77746]

People think it's ok to drive dangerously putting lives at risk.

 

[NVP]

People think it's ok to drive dangerously putting lives at risk.

Hell yeh! *high fives housey*



Does it have to be dashcam footage? Or am I ok to send in videos I've taken on my phone whilst driving behind muppets who don't shift to the left to let me pass on the motorway?

 

[Deleted member 77746]

Does it have to be dashcam footage? Or am I ok to send in videos I've taken on my phone whilst driving behind muppets who don't shift to the left to let me pass on the motorway?

Watch the police don't find your posts. You might end up with points and some nice fines through the post.

 

[GGizmo]

I need to buy a dashcam. What is the most popular at the moment?

 

[NVP]

Watch the police don't find your posts.

 

[Mr_Sukebe]

I wonder if those fines will be extended to include those taking the videos? The amount of dashcam videos where I thought that the person taking the video was just as culpable as the supposed muppet being filmed is much higher than I expected.

 

[andy_mk3]

I need to buy a dashcam. What is the most popular at the moment?

Nextbase have always been very popular and ive never had any issues with mine. There's quite a few choices of brands to choose from though.

 

[CaptainRAVE]

I have several problems with this. Other than the odd slam dunk lunatic caught on camera:

• we all make mistakes, often minor that aren’t world ending
• Cammers are often the worst drivers
• Clips are often taken out of context and are often edited in such a way to remove the cammers ridiculous driving
• It could result in even fewer police on the roads and provides those funding the police with a brilliant excuse.

Don’t get me started on the cyclists who seem to escape all punishment. The best thing to do on the roads these days it to assume that no one will follow the high way code - red lights, right of way etc and you’ll probably keep out of trouble. Let’s also not forget the cammers who often setup incidents for views. Brake? No, horn and accelerate.

 

[Rich1988]

I have several problems with this. Other than the odd slam dunk lunatic caught on camera:

• we all make mistakes, often minor that aren’t world ending
• Cammers are often the worst drivers
• Clips are often taken out of context and are often edited in such a way to remove the cammers ridiculous driving
• It could result in even fewer police on the roads and provides those funding the police with a brilliant excuse.

Don’t get me started on the cyclists who seem to escape all punishment. The best thing to do on the roads these days it to assume that no one will follow the high way code - red lights, right of way etc and you’ll probably keep out of trouble. Let’s also not forget the cammers who often setup incidents for views. Brake? No, horn and accelerate.

1) Yes and these won't generally result in a prosecution. To get a sucessful careless/dangrous driving prosecution you either have to have done something inexcusable or say something stupid in interview.

2) I agree, however the clips will have to be viewed in context otherwise the suspect could argue that they were acting in that way as they were scared or intimidated by the other driver so you couldnt get a prosecution from a 5 sec clip the whole thing would be needed.

3) The type of officers that would deal with these offences won't be front line anyway. They will be civillian Justice Traffic department staff, local crime investigators and the odd officer who is unable to work frontline for whatever reason.

technology is a double edged sword sadly it can help but also make the world a more oppressive place.

 

[Rroff]

In general it is one I'm on the fence on - most days I see people making mistakes or misjudging a situation and it is just one of those things which happen - I don't go uploading footage of that. Likewise see plenty of people who have a bit of a hoon, or race off from the lights in a manner which isn't really dangerous and don't bother myself about that - but I imagine there are plenty of people who are falling over themselves to report them - seen someone with a McLaren 720S utterly humiliate some would be contenders off the lights which I'd like to post online but won't as I've no interest in getting them in trouble (I've encountered them a number of times and the rest of the time their driving is exemplary - no tail gating, good observation and considerate).

I do submit instances where driving was incredibly dangerous - usually going the wrong way on a dual-carriageway or driving while obviously under the influence.

Clips are often taken out of context and are often edited in such a way to remove the cammers ridiculous driving

For submissions - at least on the likes of operation snap - you have to upload an unedited segment of video which shows a minimum time each side of the offence.

Not sure about other forces but Dorset police are quite pro-active as well at going after the person submitting footage if they contributed to the incident.

I wonder if those fines will be extended to include those taking the videos? The amount of dashcam videos where I thought that the person taking the video was just as culpable as the supposed muppet being filmed is much higher than I expected.

As above I don't know about other forces but I've seen on social media from Dorset police where they've gone after the person taking the video where they've contributed to or forced the incident.

 

[Greebo]

I wonder if those fines will be extended to include those taking the videos? The amount of dashcam videos where I thought that the person taking the video was just as culpable as the supposed muppet being filmed is much higher than I expected.

People do quite often find themselves prosecuted when its their footage as they are so adamant they were the ones in the right.

Last week I had a truck driver have a go at me on the local road traffic page because I deliberately held up fast moving traffic, which is illegal according to him, by driving at 51mph in a 50mph speed camera zone which resulted in him having to slow down from 70mph in his hgv.

WOuld love for him to send in his dashcam footage to the police

 

[Housey]

It’s amazing how so many people seem so utterly oblivious to their own failings yet seem happy to pick up on the faults in others.

Something tells me a proportion of those with in car cameras are motivated by capturing the mistakes as others as much as mitigating risk. I remember one such individual getting annoyed at me at a road narrowing.

I had the right of way by sign, I went and he was annoyed as he didn’t feel he needed to stop as he was travelling too quick. His pointing at his camera and mouthing “I have you on camera” still makes me smile. I was 100% right, by the book and within the law, he was utterly wrong but…he had me on film so he must be right.

 

[Kenai]

It's something i'm on the fence with. The points about throwing stones from glass houses is very valid, we all make mistakes and I wouldn't like to see people being hunted down for simple innocent mistakes. On the other hand though, you don't need to have seen too many dashcam videos to see examples of deliberately bad / anti social driving and realistically I struggle to find much issue with this sort of driving being reported.

 

[lordrobs]

Something tells me a proportion of those with in car cameras are motivated by capturing the mistakes as others as much as mitigating risk. I remember one such individual getting annoyed at me at a road narrowing.

UK Dashcams on YouTube is one of my guilty pleasures in life and it is blatant that many of the dashcam warriors on there are driving in such a way that they are trying to create situations.

 

[Deleted User 298457]

UK Dashcams on YouTube is one of my guilty pleasures in life and it is blatant that many of the dashcam warriors on there are driving in such a way that they are trying to create situations.

Haha YES. I find myself questioning my entire life as I watch it, but the 10minutes they usually last for blows by. And normally ALWAYS it is the dash cammer at fault. Love the COTW/ TWOT nominations too

 

[Rroff]

I had the right of way by sign, I went and he was annoyed as he didn’t feel he needed to stop as he was travelling too quick. His pointing at his camera and mouthing “I have you on camera” still makes me smile. I was 100% right, by the book and within the law, he was utterly wrong but…he had me on film so he must be right.

Something I've found lately on these forums and elsewhere is that a lot of people don't know how priority works and most think it is a first to the line thing - in most cases if driving in accordance with the highway code it is exactly the same as if you are approaching a junction - you don't just pull out of a junction because you were travelling too quick...

 

[jaybee]

UK Dashcams on YouTube is one of my guilty pleasures in life and it is blatant that many of the dashcam warriors on there are driving in such a way that they are trying to create situations.

Completely agree. They stubbornly plough onwards when they know someone is going to pull out on them for example and then slam the brakes on last minute. There is such a thing as defensive driving and on the roads these days you simply have to be doing this or you will have accidents. You have to be observing and predicting the what ifs, because a lot of the time they happen and if you had been less eager and more defensive, situations can be avoided. Frustrating yes, but better than accidents and road rage.

The driving standards today are absolutely shocking. I have to take mini roundabouts near me super slow, simply with the expectation to break normal procedure and actually stop or give way when I shouldn't have to, because people do not understand that you can't straight line them at 45mph and expect to not have an accident. They think that because they got there first, they have right of way to gun it across them. Not to mention that people seem to forget to give way to the right generally on them. People that pull out of junctions as well think that as long as they get out in front of you and make the turn, it's your fault if you go up the back of them. People are selfish, lazy, lack observation and general common sense when driving these days.

I dislike the idea of a dashcam recording my own mistake though. What if you make a mistake and have recorded it on a dash cam, binned the car in a ditch and wake up in hospital where the police now have possession of your cam and SD card? Can they be encrypted so that the cam can still write to it but data retrieval requires a key? In such cases, would you be required by law to unencrypt said footage?

 

[Housey]

Something I've found lately on these forums and elsewhere is that a lot of people don't know how priority works and most think it is a first to the line thing - in most cases if driving in accordance with the highway code it is exactly the same as if you are approaching a junction - you don't just pull out of a junction because you were travelling too quick...

Yup.

My referenced instance was a traffic calming ‘chicane’ where one way has to give the right of way to the other. I had the right of way and was smack on the speed limit (30mph) forcing the bloke coming the other way at more speed to have to stop. He was Mr Angry man in a 4x4 but his pointing at the camera was funny.