Safe Speed Forums

From the BBC

(with an interesting video on the site)

A new device which automatically captures the moments before and after a road collision has been tested by a chauffeur company in West Sussex.

DriveCam is an onboard camera which continuously records a journey, discarding the data every 20 seconds.

If an accident, swerve or emergency brake occurs it saves the 10 seconds beforehand and 10 seconds afterwards.

Tristar, a limousine company working out of Gatwick Airport, says it is the first to try the system in England.

Dangerous driving

The camera was developed in the US, where it is now standard issue in thousands of commercial vehicles.

DriveCam has been endorsed in the UK by the Institute of Advanced Motorists, which said results generated by the system in the US, combined with driver training, had cut the frequency and severity of accidents by up to 50%.

The camera is mounted behind the vehicle's rear view mirror and as well as being useful for resolving issues about the culpability of crashes can identify dangerous driving behaviour.

It works by collecting high risk driving events on a palm-sized colour video recorder, capturing what the driver sees and hears inside and outside the vehicle.

Anthony Withers Green, sales and marketing director of Tristar Worldwide Chauffeur Services, told the BBC News website the company would be analysing its trial of the system but the benefits were already apparent from the points of view of safety and corporate liability.

John Kane, director of DriveCam Europe, said the potential was for every vehicle, including private cars, to have the system fitted.

Anybody else think we have gone CCTV mad.

Strange thing is, whenever you see CCTV footage on the news the quality is so crap it is almost useless.




Assuming everything happens in front of you and nit t-bone or rear end incidents.

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Speed camera policy Kills

Now that's something which should be welcomed.
It may prove, once and for all, that speed isn't a serious factor.

Cheers
Peter

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Only when ideology, prejudice and dogma are set aside does the truth emerge - Kepler

I toyed with the idea of buying one of these, but they are $1000 each so a bit pricey for an individual.

Their site has some excellent real-life example videos: www.drivecam.com

Also there was a video going around a while back, it was where a guy falls asleep at the wheel and the car hits something, then spins and rolls, he wasn't belted up so he ends up going through the back window. That was taken using a DriveCam, it was in a rental car.

Gareth

and here it is.

So for example, your boss hauls you up for swerving violently. The next time you need to do that to avoid an accident you might hesitate for that vital second, wondering if you really need to, because if you don't the boss might shout at you again.....



Up to 50% includes 0%. Note also the "combined with driver training". Two variables, how do you separate them out?

If it is such a great safety device why do they have so many videos of crashes? And wasn't it obvious how the bus suffered mechanical failure in the video, I'm surprised anyone bothered to examine it afterwards. Oh, so it doesn't replace mechanical examinations then. No it's very good post fact at proving what happened, but does very little for accident prevention in my view, and re my earlier comments is positivley dangerous.