Dash Cams - Your Electronic Eyewitness

Anybody who drives anywhere for any distance will know any number of crazy things can occur on the roads.

And no matter how skilled and experienced you are as a motorist, it’s possible to fall foul of events which are simply out of your control.

But with a dash cam on board you’re essentially travelling with your own electronic eyewitness, like Big Brother’s Little Brother, only not as sinister.

That means that if another driver fails to see you when you’re pulling onto a main road, you have useful evidence of what happened.  

The footage can be used to help prove who, if anyone, was to blame.

You have your own proof when it comes to insurance claims and, in worst case scenarios, in court. It can also be useful to provide evidence if you have been the victim of an attempted ‘crash for cash’ scam. 

Dash cams can save you money on insurance, too.  Many companies offer better premiums if you fit a device, with one survey finding that 41 leading insurance providers accept dash cam footage as proof when they are looking into an incident.

Another study found almost three million motorists now record their journeys with in-car cameras. Some people say the devices have the side effect of actually making their own driving better. The thinking is that they drive more effectively because they know that any mistakes will be picked up.

Dash cams can be hardwired into your vehicle but many of those currently in operation use your cigarette lighter socket – if you also use the socket for your sat nav and phone, you’ll need to buy an adapter.

The devices tend to be clever little devils too, recording video files of a few minutes and automatically deleting the oldest file when the memory card is full. That means there will always be space for a new file on your device and that it will record.

Any files that you need to keep can be locked and saved. Most dash cams register changes in speed, such as the vehicle coming to an abrupt halt, perhaps indicating an incident, and then save the file.

When setting up your device, you should ensure you get a good balance between the road and sky. This will help with the exposure to make sure you get a nice clear view. 

And finally, one vital point – always follow the manufacturers’ instructions to make sure the device is correctly placed.

While a dash cam can save you money on your insurance premium, it could result in you facing a fine if you place it on the windscreen in a way that obscures your vision.