Are helmet cameras any use, legally speaking?

Bacteria Man
Bacteria Man Posts: 61
edited September 2010 in Commuting chat
Has anyone found the use of a helmet camera helped them pursue compensation/convictions when someone drove into them?

Comments

  • Cunobelin
    Cunobelin Posts: 11,792
    I have used mine to effect. Driver on cycle path who simply nudged me and bike out of the way.

    Driver traced, shown video and then pleaded guilty.

    I have also had several taxi drivers with endorsements on their hackney licenses.

    More effective though is the use with companies. I tend to complain and then when the driver denies forward the video and show them to be dishonest as well!

    I find it very effective.
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  • As mentioned above Helmetcams just remove almost all question about what happened and are very useful as evidence. When I had my last motorcycle accident when a cab did a u-turn in front of me with no warning, I had a regular camcorder bolted to the handlebars. The camera survived and I just played the footage to the cop that turned up and he was satisfied, they just wanted a copy of the video for use as evidence at court in the future if needed.

    I now have a helmetcam that runs whenever I'm on the bike and when I do get into any arguments with other road users the camera does make them quieten down quickly.

    If you do get an incident of bad/abusive driving from a company vehicle just upload the footage to YouTube and include the company name in the tags and title, and then just send them the link. Anyone Googling for the company has a chance to see the footage so it'll hurt them in the future.
  • desweller
    desweller Posts: 5,175
    What model cameras do you guys use? I often wonder about the ability of the cheaper units to resolve things like number plates.
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  • I may well invest in one of these. As DesWeller says, what cameras have you got? Do they work ok in the dark?
  • bails87
    bails87 Posts: 12,998
    I occasionally use a Veho Muvi clonoe that I got for something like £8 off eBay.

    The battery life on mine is a bit pants, but if you have a look on Youtube under the username mbails87 you'll see a video called 5_5_2010 or something like that. It shows a couple of near misses. The quality on youtube is enough to make out the plates and the actual video straight off the cam is much better quality.
    MTB/CX

    "As I said last time, it won't happen again."
  • I'm using a ContourHD 720P helmetcam, they aren't cheap though. Battery life is 3 hrs and it records straight to microSD.

    Here's some footage taken from it that I used to make a complaint with
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lINd8VUm41k

    Here's the cam
    http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk56 ... 49e3a1.jpg
    .
  • Jamey
    Jamey Posts: 2,152
    ContourHD 1080p here, although I use it at 720p60 as I believe frame rate is more important than overall res once you get into HD territory, plus the bitrate for 1080 isn't significantly higher than the bitrate for 720 so it's not actually much better quality anyway.

    Wouldn't be without it now.

    Cunobelin - that technique of complaining without a video first and then seeing whet they say before you reveal that you have it on video is a sneaky one... So sneaky I might have to try that in future. Excellent call :)
  • Pufftmw
    Pufftmw Posts: 1,941
    I've got a waterproof ATC5K which I will be mounting on my bike shortly - its a bit bulky as a helmet cam I think - and I've just ordered one of those £12 eBay thingys for the helmet. @ £12 you can't really go wrong if it works for an hour or so and records your daily commute simply enough.

    Just having being notified of a car accident I was totally unaware of that scratched my car (so lightly it will polish out easily) but apparently knackered the other persons wing-mirror, badly scraped their wheel-arch and did other dents and damage, then in this litegeous society, it makes sense to take precautions to protect yourself.

    I'm off to take pictures of how in good condition my car is and fight off this spurious claim...
  • Here's another bit of kit that might be suitable for use on a bike, and fairly cheap. I haven't tried one out as they say that the electrical system on the motorbike will probably interfere with the signal.

    http://www.dogcamsport.co.uk/at-1-wirel ... ameras.htm
  • Pufftmw wrote:
    I've got a waterproof ATC5K which I will be mounting on my bike shortly - its a bit bulky as a helmet cam I think - and I've just ordered one of those £12 eBay thingys for the helmet. @ £12 you can't really go wrong if it works for an hour or so and records your daily commute simply enough.

    Just having being notified of a car accident I was totally unaware of that scratched my car (so lightly it will polish out easily) but apparently knackered the other persons wing-mirror, badly scraped their wheel-arch and did other dents and damage, then in this litegeous society, it makes sense to take precautions to protect yourself.

    I'm off to take pictures of how in good condition my car is and fight off this spurious claim...

    sounds like a doddgy claim make sure you dot your i's and cross your t's.
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  • I can't help feeling sad for you guys or that you are sad guys. Not sure which.
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