If one of your guilty pleasures is stalking the dashcam Facebook pages, or you- tubing the best catches on a dashcam, you have mostly likely come across a vast amount of footage from drivers in Russia. So do they actually have more traffic incidents, or just more cameras?

There is so much dashcam footage for traffic incidents in Russia that it has become a common misconception that Russians are required to install dashcams in order to qualify for insurance.
While it is not compulsory, having dashcam footage of a traffic incident can certainly assist with defending insurance claims against you (and protecting your no claim bonus!) or enforcing rights against another party who is responsible for the traffic incident.

As Russian motorist rights activist Alexei Dozorov put it “You can get into your car without pants, but never get into a car without a dashcam’.

Are Dashcams as important in Australia?

Dashcams currently aren’t as widespread in Australia as they are in other countries, however their use is definitely on the rise. Ensuring that the appropriate person is held responsible for a traffic incident seems to be the main motivator for why so many Australians are also installing dashcams and recording systems in their cars.
Fortunately the majority of drivers will do the right thing and own up when they are to blame for an traffic incident. However, there are drivers who will deny that they are at fault or, in some cases, deny there was an traffic incident at all!

And the worst offenders are those that take off from the scene!

In these instances, those involved in these incidents will spend more time and money trying to determine who is truly responsible.
Alternatively, there have been many cases where dashcam footage not only proved that the other driver was at fault, but also demonstrated that witnesses had lied about the events leading up to the traffic incident. Such truths would be critical in claims for the incident.

So should we all be installing Dashcams?

For most of us, the reason we install and use a dashcam is to protect ourselves and our families.
But sometimes our footage can have unexpected benefits for others too! For instance, footage we record may also assist police in investigating traffic incidents or even crimes, or we may inadvertently end up recording some natural phenomenon. So, if its within your means, it’s definitely recommended that you look at installing a dashcam. Who knows? You might be lucky enough to capture something that makes you a viral internet sensation …. or avoid a hefty insurance bill.