Montage of car dashboard camera incidents

[Video Link] Miss Cellania of Neatorama says: "Many Russian drivers use a constantly-recording dashboard camera for legal defense in case of trouble, which leads to some awesome clips for the internet audience."

UPDATE: Read: "DASH-CAMS: RUSSIA’S LAST HOPE FOR CIVILITY AND SURVIVAL ON THE ROAD" on Animal.

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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- http://twitter.com/petitepoubelle petite poubelle
  
  The one guy walking across the street repeatedly hitting himself on the head with an empty bottle was the least belligerent person in the video.
bcsizemo

That ending…someone hit the NOS button early.
- http://twitter.com/petitepoubelle petite poubelle
  
  No, no, that’s just what all Russian cars do every 2,000 miles or so.
http://twitter.com/petitepoubelle petite poubelle

Basically, more people in Russia are injured in post-accident fistfights than in the actual accidents.
http://twitter.com/Polackio Matt Popke

I’m surprised by how many of the “aggressors” in these videos were the ones with the dash cams. You’d think you’d be more careful when you know that someone else is watching.
- xzzy
  
  Unless of course the fact it’s being recorded emboldens them. Everyone wants a video of them kicking someone’s ass!
  
  And if the fight doesn’t go their way, it’s pretty simple to delete the footage.
- RedShirt77
  
  How bizarre that they don’t destroy the evidence of them beating someone up. Assault must be a minor offense.
http://profiles.google.com/stephen.schenck Stephen Schenck

May have found the solution to those videos of the asshole bike messengers from yesterday…
- millie fink
  
  Righto. I wonder what a serviceable dashcam (and mount) costs in the U.S.? I’ve seen some cheapos online, but I have no idea how well they work.
  - Spezz
    
    You can make your own with an old smartphone and gps holder. There’s even an app for it; DailyRoads
ChicagoD

I get the distinct feeling that the Russian solution to ice of the roadway is to speed up.
- Bevatron Repairman
  
  The less time spent on a dangerous road, the better!
  - http://twitter.com/trempls tré
    
    That’s also the Minnesotan response.
    
    The more you know
http://twitter.com/incarnedine_v Dan Hibiki

The scam BTW is that people would purposely reverse in to you at a red light and claim that you rear ended them. Hence why most people get the dash cam… not entirely for the purpose of catching Zangief pile driving Ryu for cutting him off.
MonkeyBoy

To understand why Russians really need dash cams see this article: Why Russians Are Obsessed With Dash-Cams.

The roads in Russia are really like the imagined old American West.
- petertrepan
  
  From your link:
  
  And then, sometimes, someone will jump under your car at a crossing, laying on the asphalt, simulating a badly hurt pedestrian waiting for that cop conveniently parked nearby.
  
  I guess that explains the part where the driver gets out of his car to beat the man who lay down in the road in front of him.
  - MonkeyBoy
    
    I recall the montage also showed an incident of the “back up into a car” scam where the intended victim starts pointing to the dash cam. You can find a bunch of such vids that end with the scammer getting a beating.
  - Culturedropout
    
    I was pretty impressed with the way he smacked him around a little bit and then tossed him off the road like the sack of crap he was.
  - ldobe
    
    My instinct was that it was a hijack scam… Someone acts hurt and when you get out his buddy larts you with a brick or something and they take your car… but I guess the “Personal injury” scam where they try to get you to settle the injury for money is safer for the scammers generally.
    
    If I were driving and someone dove in front of my car in the way in the video, I’d be tempted to run them over, not sure whether I would. It was obviously not an accident. Either he wanted to kill himself, or he wanted to stop me in a scummy scammy way.
- http://twitter.com/sensitive_b Eddie Abello
  
  I also imagine that liability insurance isn’t a requirement to drive as it is most states here. So to establish damages in court you better have very good evidence.
  - http://twitter.com/incarnedine_v Dan Hibiki
    
    I think it’s mandatory as of 2003 in Russia.
nixiebunny

Between the vodka and the ice, these roads have plenty of danger lurking.
- Slowermo
  
  Mmm, vodka on ice.
Rory Santino

Okay, I get this. Now can someone please explain Russians’ thing with bizarre cat videos?
TJ Anderson

It’s hard to enjoy it when you think of how many fatalities and severe injuries must have resulted as a result of these accidents. But fortunately that didn’t stop you from sharing it with us. Now I can’t wait for the epic “Project Glass” montages in 20 years (or whatever we’re calling it by then)
- http://www.darkphibre.com MrScience
  
  Or… you could not click Play. The screenshot for the video is pretty representative of what it contains.
  - TJ Anderson
    
    Perhaps my use of the word “fortunately” wasn’t clear. I’m glad they shared the video.
TJ Anderson

RedShirt77 – In Russia I’m not sure it is an enforced offense at all.
http://twitter.com/gralinnaea gralinnaea

Thank you. Whew.
SomeGuyNamedMark

Ummm, I won’t be driving in Russia
reactor4

This can be summed up in three words. VODKA!
Gary61

In mother Russia, CAR WRECKS YOU!
- http://thisisonlya.blogspot.com robcat2075
  
  I read all the comments just to see when that joke would surface.
  - invictus
    
    Except Gary61 got it wrong. It should be “In Soviet Russia.”
    - Gary61
      
      she is my mother, I may call her as I wish.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OAUXAA362EXWLYVMPJOKLFB5JQ Incipient Madness

I kinda like Russian pop music, but A better soundtrack would have been “Warm Leatherette” by The Normal.
- daen
  
  I played the Laetitia Sadier track a couple of posts above,”Find Me the Pulse of the Universe”, which worked rather well, and was the same length. I like the “Warm Leatherette” idea, though, and John Foxx’s “No-one Driving” works, too :)
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=704232015 R Scott LaMorte

The single car accident at 2:29, where the driver hits a median rail and rolls his car, dislodges the driver’s camera which ends up on the floor of the car — pointed, as far as I can tell, at a half-empty bottle of vodka.
http://www.facebook.com/joelfinkle Joel Finkle

JG Ballard is strangely turned on right now.
- http://www.xradiograph.com/ OtherMichael
  
  Oh, he’s not alone….
sparkdale

There’s something especially terrifying about those three gents that leave their car at 1:28 with their hands in their jackets, and return to jet off. Looks like a hit.
- LaylaSV
  
  Nah. Didn’t they come back with a plastic bag full of stuff? Looks to me like they stole someone’s shopping. I hope it was nothing but tampax and US weekly.
http://twitter.com/bazimmerman Brad Zimmerman

Poor roads + poor licensing/driver testing regimen + what appears to be careless or reckless behavior + poor understanding of physics + inadequate traffic law + poor enforcement of any existing traffic law + poorly maintained vehicles (no real MOT/TUV) + lots of older vehicles with no (or non-functioning) modern safety equipment = video fun time.

After I moved to Poland I swore that when my wife and I finally bought a new car it would have every available safety feature offered. So that’s exactly what I did and exactly what I got… and the shit I see here is not *nearly* as bad as the shameful stuff going on in Russia. Nonetheless, I have seen some fairly fucked-up stuff here, most recently two dead bodies splayed on the side of a fairly busy road. One of the guys clearly hadn’t been wearing a seatbelt (common) and had been ejected – he just looked like meat. Cops/ambulance hadn’t shown up yet but as they were clearly dead I guess there wasn’t a huge hurry.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  After I moved to Poland I swore that when my wife and I finally bought a new car it would have every available safety feature offered.
  
  Like RPGs and flame units?
  - Culturedropout
    
    I like the way you think. XD Drive offensively! “You can clearly see here where he pulled in front of me and I had no choice but to blow his car in half to pass safely through!”
dr

Thank you again Grandma and Grandpa for emigrating to America all those years ago.
- AviSolomon
  
  Driving is the most dangerous thing you can do – anywhere.
  - dr
    
    I agree, but at least in the US you don’t have to worry about some shlammer dragging you out of your car and smashing your face after a fender-bender.
    - AviSolomon
      
      I guess you have not driven in the City of Brotherly Love :(
      - dr
        
        No, but I used to live in Philadelphia:-)
    - http://www.facebook.com/lharden1 Laura Harden
      
      Not usually but it happens.
  - MonkeyBoy
    
    Driving is the most dangerous thing you can do – anywhere.
    
    Actually untrue in parts of the US: Gun Deaths Outpace Motor Vehicle Deaths in 10 States.
    
    e.g. Arizona: 856 gun deaths, 809 motor vehicle deaths
    - Culturedropout
      
      But… how do you count a drive-by shooting?
http://noctilucent-studios.blogspot.com/ Noctilucent Studios

Did I miss the memo or something about everyone now must have a dashcam in their car? What gives?
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  I’ve seen a few tumblr blogs from gentlemen with dash cams, but the cams are pointed in and down.
  - triscuit
    
    Gah! TMI, TMI!
M. Bell

The Laetitia song above makes a perfect soundtrack for this.
- daen
  
  Indeed!
vrplumber

The fight scenes in the video seemed oddly dispassionate to me; the combatants showing little emotion compared to the one guy kicking the car and screaming what I can only guess were obscenities.
Richard Dagenais

A Ukrainian ex-pat friend of ours likes to email our group of friends these dash cam videos, including some of his own recordings.

Today he sent us one such video in which a brick came off a commercial load and went through the car windshield, crushing the head of the passenger, killing her instantly. Mercifully, you don’t see the carnage in the video but you hear the anguish of the driver. I won’t even link it because the sound still haunts me hours later.

This obsession with dash cams is more than a legal thing, its a morbid obsession with death and near-death experiences at the wheel. Its really dark stuff.
http://richspk.livejournal.com/ RichSPK

I just watched this with my 5-year-old by my side. Probably not the best idea. She didn’t need to see the accidents, but I wasn’t expecting the fighting. I’d really rather she hadn’t seen the fighting. Be forewarned.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Beth-Cravens/704440406 Beth Cravens

did that one car flip because of the pothole?