Is it practical to mount a front facing dash cam to the rear of my Jeep Grand Cherokee ( In order to provide a rear view )
I had a new Nextbase 412GW for Christmas, still in its box waiting for junior to fit it for me.
Would be a real shame to bin it & spend £££'s buying a new dual lens camera.
Why ?
Last week I had a run in with a Psycho cyclist.
He was going up a steep hill on a remote country lane near to where I live & travelling at a snails pace to be expected on a very steep hill.
The cyclist was keeping hard over to his near side & I had slowed to his pace to allow another cyclist coming down the hill to pass us both, this
he did with plenty of room to spare.
After the downhill cyclist had passed & the road clear of oncoming traffic I moved over as far as possible to my offside to give the cyclist as
much room as possible ( Hedgerow weeds brushing my offside.
I started to pass the cyclist very slowly.
As I started to pass, he lashed out with his fist & knocked my nearside mirror back. He also punched or slapped the side of my car several times
as I slowly passed him.
Once I passed, I observed him comically veer his bike to the other side of the road then farcically lean himself against the hedge. He was sat on his
bike waving is fists.
I did not stop at the scene due to it being a remote location, his high level of aggression & the fact I am 100% sure that I had made no contact
with him or his cycle.
When I arrived home I told my wife & friend about the incident, both were of the view that it was a matter to be reported to the police.
As I sat at my computer filling out an incident report to my local police when a police car pulls up outside my house.
The cyclist had called it in as a a hit & run.
I spoke to 2 very nice police officers, They were satisfied that I was in the process of reporting the incident & took a full statement of my
version of events.
After my statement was taken I was told as far as the police were concerned, that was the end of the matter as no injury or damage had occurred.
Last night I received a phone call from the officer that took my statement, the cyclist had been in contact with her requesting my insurance
details.
After finding out that the police were not going to take any action, the cyclist has now decided that his bike is damaged & that he now has a
shoulder injury.
The officer advised me to contact my insurance company first thing in the morning to alert them of a potential claim.
I called my insurer this morning to tell them of the incident, they confirmed that a claims management company had lodged a third party claim for
personal injury & damage to a cycle.
So worst case for me is that my perfect No claims history goes pop.
Rear facing dashcam footage would have been priceless in this situation.
Bolting the stable door after the horse has fled I know but any dash cam advice would be most welcome.
I use a dual camera so it records to one SD card and keeps it all integ.
My current ones a Blacksys, which arent that cheap, but did use a cheap chinese/ebay job historically but was too unreliable.
in answer to the question
Can I mount a dash cam to the rear of my car?
yes, just do it. (as well as to the front and maybe sides too)
and no they don't have to be synced together or anything, that can be done from any footage.
if the police visited, I would hope they took a look at your vehicle, to see if there were scratches etc.
edit,
re reading your account, the police were satisfied of
quote:
that was the end of the matter as no injury or damage had occurred.
but then a claim for damage and injury...
sent it straight back to police to investigate again.
Thanks loggy
I agree that a single image source would be best.
Halfords have Nextbase dual camera for £199 but not quite as feature rich as the new one in the still in the box. ( Probably a lot less hassle to fit
a single unit )
I've got two dash cams and was thinking of mounting the cheaper one [they were both pretty cheap] in the back window. Given that it sounds like
he is claiming you hit him with the side of the car would this have helped in your case?
I agree that a front & rear camera would not show what was going on at the side of the car.
However a front camera would have shown the width of the road, time, date, speed & GPS location.
It would have also shown the oncoming cyclist passing both of us with plenty of room to spare.
In addition it would have shown the offside front of my car brushing the roadside growth to allow the maximum passing distance between my car &
the cyclist.
The rear facing camera would have shown a first class act of amateur dramatics that would have been worthy of an oscar.
Front camera is now fitted & going to get another one for the rear today.
Not the best solution but it will give me time to find the best dual lens unit for me.
Way too late I know but at least I will have evidence should a situation such as this happens again.
quote:
After the downhill cyclist had passed & the road clear of oncoming traffic I moved over as far as possible to my offside to give the cyclist as
much room as possible ( Hedgerow weeds brushing my offside. I started to pass the cyclist very slowly. As I started to pass, he lashed out with his
fist & knocked my nearside mirror back. He also punched or slapped the side of my car several times as I slowly passed him.
As a cyclist and a driver, if I can knock your mirror as you pass me, you're too close to overtake and the road is too narrow - be more
patient. Though in that situation, as a cyclist, I'd be middle of the lane to stop you passing because people can't be trusted to make
sensible overtake choices.
