A professor of criminal justice used to do a class exercise with her students in which, during a lecture in the middle of the semester, the professor’s husband would enter the classroom and say that he needed to talk to her about something important. They would then leave the classroom together, and she would return several minutes later. When she returned, she would ask the students write a description of what the man who interrupted class was wearing, what he looked like, and what he said. The students’ descriptions varied widely. The professor would read the descriptions to the whole class to show them the limits of reliability of eyewitness accounts. Someone interrupting a lecture and asking to talk to the professor is not even all that distracting; imagine how hard it is to remember all the details if you are in a car accident. As the weeks go by and you continue to communicate with your insurance company and, in some cases, with lawyers, about the accident, the details can become even less clear.
A dashboard camera can give a more accurate and more detailed account than a person with a great memory and excellent powers of observation. It can be one of the most reliable sources of evidence in a lawsuit related to a car accident.
How Does a Dashcam Work?
A dashcam is a small, relatively simple device, and most of them cost less than $100. When your car is in use, the dashcam is always recording. Most dashcams can store about an hour of recorded footage. Once it gets full, the dashcam starts replacing its old footage with newer footage. Much like with cameras that retail stores use to catch shoplifters, you can review the dashcam footage in order to recreate the events of an accident.
Cameras Do Not Lie
A dashcam can give you detailed and trustworthy evidence far beyond what you can get from verbal statements made to insurance representatives or police, or from still photos of vehicle damage. For example, if the airbags in your car deployed, the dashcam can show you exactly when that happened. That is just one example of a detail that human memory is unlikely to pick up on. The dashcam footage will be helpful to your insurance company in determining liability for the accident. If you end up needing to file a lawsuit because of your accident, expert witnesses can help your case with their interpretations of the dashcam footage. Besides, the very existence of the dashcam footage can deter the other party from making false statements during the legal case, if they know that the dashcam footage will disprove their statements.
Eric Schmidt Works with Car Accident Lawsuits
A dashcam can be a great help in revealing the truth about the details of a car accident, but it cannot replace a professional legal opinion. Contact Eric Schmidt in Phoenix, Arizona for a consultation to see if you have grounds for a car accident lawsuit.
