Should You Invest In A Dash Cam For Your Vehicle?

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Get in a fender bender this winter and swear the other driver was to blame? That can be tough to prove without a witness. But a dashboard camera in your car could offer an extra set of eyes.

Get behind the wheel and there's no telling what you might see on the road. Law enforcement often prove that point with their trusty dash cameras. Like when a driver crossed the center line and smashed into a Hudson police officer, to a meteorite blazing through the Pennsylvania sky.

Recently, videos from everyday drivers made news as well, like a frightening crash on Highway 13 caught on a truck driver's camera, or a spinout that a WCCO-TV photographer recorded this winter.

"These things are out there for consumer vehicles, they're out there for businesses," said Andrew Aboudaoud, president of The Dash Cam Store. "That's one thing we're constantly doing is trying to educate people and say, 'Hey, these things are available, they're very useful they prove their value,'" Aboudaoud said.

His shining example can be seen in a clip of a tow truck driver in Texas passes through an intersection when another driver broadsides him. Both parties claimed to have the right of way, but the camera showed the tow driver still had a yellow light.

Personal injury attorney Eric Palmer, a partner at Meshbesher & Spence, says dash-cam footage is much more prevalent in cases today than ten years ago.

"A dash camera can certainly go to prove a variety of issues involved when any accident is being investigated," Palmer said.

He said in crashes that involve he-said-she-said arguments, proof of who's at fault is critical to an insurance claim.

"Without any kind of witness statement or third-party video or third-party evidence that's going to be available to the insurance carriers, more often than not you're going to see a denial of the claim outright," Palmer said.

Modern dash cameras also come equipped with parking mode, a motion-activated tool that detects someone walking around your car, or worse, trying to break in.

"Basically it's making your car have it's own surveillance system while it's parked, and that's massive for a lot of people," Aboudaoud said.

Now that we knew the camera's benefits, we wanted to try one out ourselves. Aboudaoud sent us a Blackvue brand dash cam, capable of capturing high definition video. It's powered through the cigarette lighter port, but to use parking mode, we had an adapter to plug into the on-board diagnostic port.

"They are very simple to operate in a basic sense," Aboudaoud said. "Just plug and play or kind of set it and forget it."

We downloaded the app to see our video in real time. It captures up to 11 hours, then starts recording over the oldest clip.

"You only need to retrieve the video in case you need it," Aboudaoud said. "So it's just intended to run all the time, you don't have to worry about it."

In our trips around the Twin Cities, we witnessed a slow down on Interstate 94 that was caused by a two-car crash on a bridge. Later, we caught a driver rolling a stop sign and cutting in front of us. Had an accident happened, Palmer feels we shouldn't solely rely on the dash cam's eye.

"I really do believe that witnesses are key in having that third-party validation is something really important for people to do after an accident," Palmer said.

The price tag for the extra eye on the road is about $300. Dash-cam enthusiasts say they are also a great tool for parents with young drivers. Some units have GPS tracking, so you can also keep tabs where your teenager has been.