You don’t think its going to happen to you until – it happens to you.
A few things its worth being reminded of:
Get a dashcam
Have NCD protection
If you’re in any accident, take tons of pictures of both vehicles asap. The other party may try to add damage to their vehicle at a later date to make it look worse.
Don’t admit liability.
Don’t agree to pay cash for repairs to their vehicle and bypass insurance. They will take the cash and then file a claim anyway.
Get the driver’s name and details.
If possible, put your phone camera in video mode asap, and step out of the car filming – try and get the occupants of the other vehicle getting out and walking around – could be helpful when they all claim whiplash.
It can happen anywhere these days, not just places like Manchester.
Keep your distance pulling away from lights, on roundabouts, exiting roundabouts onto dual carriageway sliproads etc.

I’m pro dashcam.

But the standard comment on here re dashcams is that they make you drive bad therefore it is your fault *

*Just getting it in there before some nugget suggests it with seriousness (it will happen)

As grimpe says – and when it happens, you think “?? what the? how the??” because the car in front has stopped for no reason, probably while the line of cars was accelerating. So you’re shocked and that doesn’t help logical thinking, unless you’re prepared.

Also look at and photograph where any debris is; if the broken plastic from their rear lights is directly below, the vehicle hasn’t moved forwards on impact, so there’s no cause for whiplash.

Not keen on dashcam, could self-incriminate, but could be useful for catching the numberplate of any 3rd vehicle involved – they often collaborate, so there’s another car that pulls a dick move and sets off the chain of events. Insurance investigators have access to ANPR data and can figure if the 2 vehicles have been spending time together.

you’re shocked and that doesn’t help logical thinking, unless you’re prepared

Yeah exactly. Also you instinctively feel to blame, at the end of the day its your foot on the accelerator/brake, so you’re already on the defensive and perhaps don’t suspect it was staged. Really worth rehearsing what would happen before it does so you do everything possible at the scene. The insurance company can refuse to pay and you keep a clean record if they can prove the case, but that depends largely on you.

Sounds like you’ve had a shit time. Let’s hope karma is a thing.

Not keen on dashcam, could self-incriminate

So, you’re not happy when these people are at it with you, but honesty doesn’t seem to be the best policy when it’s your fault?.

Or have I read that wrong?.

Good advice. On occupants- even counting how many there are can help. The insurance investigator told me afterwards that the other driver was claiming there were 4 passengers (and all had whiplash obviously) when fact there were 2.

Regarding admitting liability- I did feel to blame but the situation felt fishy and I was in a hire car with clear instructions never to admit liability in case of an accident. The other driver was quite intimidating and eventually I had to say “OK, let’s call the police” before he gave up.

I work in insurance motor injury claims.

There’s nothing, nothing as satisfying as seeing a bit of clear dashcam showing a blatantly contrived/induced/staged accident.

Well, writing to the solicitors of the multiple claimants telling them you have it is more satisfying….

I reckon this drive probably took great satisfaction in pointing out his dash cam…

So, you’re not happy when these people are at it with you, but honesty doesn’t seem to be the best policy when it’s your fault?.
Or have I read that wrong?.

I think there’s a bit of a difference between people who stage accidents on purpose, and being a bit wary of having your every move on the road recorded.

Sounds like you’ve had a shit time. Let’s hope karma is a thing.

In the middle of the process so just unsure of how its going to turn out. Just wish I’d had this advice before it happened!

Keep your distance pulling away from lights, on roundabouts, exiting roundabouts onto dual carriageway sliproads etc.

Oddly (to some) seems a reasonable cause of action.

Recently had a dashcam goon tell me he was going to give his footage to the police and get me banned after he tried several times to undertake on shevrons then tailgated me for the next five miles.
Me insisting that he really should give his footage to the police to see what happened seem to enrage him even more.
His response was to follow me again taking pictures of me on his mobile while driving.
Never did hear from the law on that one…
Got a new company car the other day that came with a dashcam.
It’s still in it’s box.

Got a new company car the other day that came with a dashcam.
It’s still in it’s box.

well I’m in the market for one now!

Just to be clear the dashcam is still in the box not the car.🙃

Crash for crash is very common where I live – happens a few times every week. Live in an area with a lot of roundabouts and big dual carriageway intersections. No need for dash cams. The insurance companies and authorities are onto them, know its happening and are pretty smart at sussing it out. A few victims I know of had no issues getting sorted out with no dash cam. All the insurance companies pay into a central fund to pay out for these as the perpetrators are not always insured themselves so insurance companies not incentivised to wriggle out of payouts and are actually keen to, and incentived to work with the authorities to get these people caught and brought to justice to demonstrate this is not a viable way to defraud insurance companies.

No problem with dash cams I guess – I fancy one of those with the feature that records when the car is stationary to try to catch people who damage your car when left alone in car parks. I’m a bit concerned generally about how surveyed our lives are becoming and dash cams could and probably will become part of that and the “if you’re not unto anything naughty you shouldn’t be concerned” is just a lazy argument – well not really an argument at all – your wish for a right to a private life shouldn’t be seen as an admission as an intent to get upto something naughty.

To be fair the only incrimination my dash cam ever caught on me is my wide vocabulary of swears for some of the idiots out there.

The ones coming at you on the wrong side of the road , the ones on their phones pulling out directly Infront of a 6 ton vehicle. The ones driving along in the spray In their Grey car with no lights on so are near invisible, the Macdonald’s carpark that fined me for have 2 cups of coffee in one day.fhe motorbike that decided it was taking the racing line round bridge of brown and was confronted by my van already occupying it.

All were noted prior to being incidents but with so many morons on the road it’s easy to see how “accidents” happen

After insurance shafted us when a woman pulled out of the side of the road and shoved my wife’s car into a bus via the passengers door….then made up some implausible story and made up witnesses …..and the bus let me see the footage showing it was the woman’s fault but we’re not allowed to give me a copy it had to be the insurance but insurance co dragged their heels getting it and paid out.

In the current situation I’m happy enough with the surveillance of me by my own camera is concerned. Im ok with that as I am in control of the data..

Depends on why you’ve bought the dashcam I think. If you are a stressy angry driver and are enranged at other drivers behaviour, there is a likelihood you will drive in a manner to provoke bad behaviour or allow situations to develop to get dramatic footage for youtube etc. Or, you bought it to protect yourself, and you think of it as a 3rd party witness that may show you driving poorly before an incident, and therefore it makes you drive more carefully!

I got mine after a particularly angry driver started ranting through the window that she was reporting me to my employer, no one needs that grief when innocent and you have no one to back you up!

I sent footage to Cheshire police of a particularly impatient driver cutting through a gap in a central reservation and driving the last dual carriageway 100m on the wrong side.

Luckily nothing coming the other way due to the temporary traffic lights we were queuing for, but I’d filled out a witness statement and the registered keeper had been sent the form to name the driver before the end of the day. Have to keep the original footage on the memory card for upto a year just in case it goes to court.

Been thinking of this for a while, now I’m convinced. Recommendations for a decent dash cam then?

My Yi Ultra dash cam gets lovely images and a nice wide field of view but it has WiFi to look at footage on your phone rather than GPS, I’d prefer the former for a price rather than the latter. You want decent resolution, but bear in mind that chews through storage, so you need a decent sized memory card as well otherwise it writes over old data too quickly.

Difficult to recommended any particular one because models change so often, unless you go Garmin or Nextbase but they aren’t as good VFM as the Chinese manufacturers. Usually there are some recent 10 best…. type reviews on the WWW.

On crash for cash, rather than dashcams, something I should have mentioned if you’re caught, check whether the stop lights of the car that stopped have bulbs in them. I didn’t think to check, but it would have been easy to do as the lenses were smashed, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t see them light up.

On crash for cash, rather than dashcams, something I should have mentioned if you’re caught, check whether the stop lights of the car that stopped have bulbs in them

Isn’t that something a dashcam would illustrate perfectly though?

I don’t really drive enough to justify a dashcam (use one on the bike 🙂 ) – but all of the OP’s advice stands in a normal accident, not just a scam one.

I didn’t take photos when owning up to bumping a car in a car park and the claim went through the roof. If I’d had a pic of the tiny crack in the plastic, I’m sure they couldn’t have claimed for all the new parts (including a light cluster which I didn’t touch).
Crashes happen to you so infrequently (if you’re a normal driver!) it’s hard to remember what to do, but all that grimep suggests is worth remembering.

Just remember kids, having a dashcam is “pure evil” and will turn you into an “unreconstructed hooligan” 😉

https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/dashcams/page/2/

Absolutely perchy

I fitted a dash cam to the Berlingo and instantly it became a fire breathing rip snorting supercharged V8 and I did donuts round little old granny’s who were trying to cross the road.