[bravo_romeo]

Mod note: Back to back post, please use multi-quote [Quote+] instead. Thanks.

Originally Posted by saurabh2711

I completely agree with 2000rpm - Anticipatory Defensive drive. You should start practicing this early . No offences - Dashcam will only save you from trouble if you are left in a condition to use it or show it to someone else.{God forbid}

The tailgate video is perfect example of a "Bad Driver" thread. You should have not tailgated the pickup at first place, when it did not allowed you to change lanes, when you overtook him. Good skills to avoid hitting anything behind that truck.

Let your Dashcam capture accidents of others, not the ones in which you are involved or have near misses. Drive safe.

Another Question : You work for GOI & Ministry of Defense. Does your car flashes any of these information?

Enough of "Gyan" now: On a lighter note : If you believe in astrology, get your horoscope checked, if you & driving go hand in hand.

Apologies to sound too harsh.

I understand tailgating is completely wrong but my job often forces me to do so. Good news is I am trained for this. The vehicle which I was driving had an amber beacon on top which was covered, My unit discourages using beacons unless required.
As I said earlier, the motive behind these videos is to educate others what can be the consequences of tailgaiting.
As you said, The horoscope part was done by my parents long back and roads and me doesn't go hand in hand, you can closely associate that with Murphy's law, Anything can go wrong will definitely go wrong whether I am behind steering or sipping fruit juice on passenger seat, You can partially blame that on my driving but even when I am in defensive mode, still you can expect some adventures around me.

Originally Posted by treadmark

I was contemplating to buy a dashcam for a long time, it was on hold only for warranty related concerns VW service may raise since I wanted to go only with hardwired kit.
These videos and the dashcam thread videos had made me to order one right away.
Only thing is I will be charging the camera through USB and should live with a dangling wire to the windshield, nevertheless it is still better considering how bad the manners in our road is.

Cheers!

Not really, You can get a longer wire hide it behind the plastic panels.
Please go through this DIY tutorial.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJDHLq2L9f0

[sharktale]

I think the best solution is to provide a simple power port around the IRVM. They company could sell adapters as an additional accessory.
So, if anyone wants to use the port for Dashcam can do so, or else if anyone wants to use it as a charger for their phone can use it too. It will be a boon to the Uber/Ola drivers !

[treadmark]

Originally Posted by bravo_romeo

Not really, You can get a longer wire hide it behind the plastic panels.
Please go through this DIY tutorial.

I for one don't like to touch any interior trims until otherwise it's mandatory.
Once touched be assured your vehicle is going to be a rattle box accompanied with squeaks, which will get agitated with our road conditions.

Cheers!

[harsh79]

Originally Posted by treadmark

Once touched be assured your vehicle is going to be a rattle box accompanied with squeaks, which will get agitated with our road conditions.

Not if you change all the retaining clips each time a trim panel is removed.

[samaspire]

Originally Posted by bravo_romeo

... often my work profile forces me to drive like that, Though our vehicles are marked still people hardly care.

By your description, I would assume you are either in the army, police or special security. But then, how did manage to install a dashcam in a government vehicle? Or should we assume that it is standard fitment in pilot cars?

[bravo_romeo]

Few things I cannot explain. No, I am not in escort, but work very closely with them. Yes few cameras are installed in escort vehicle depending on field of operation, those videos are not available for public. The camera which I use is my personal which I use in almost every car that I drive. All videos have no significance on security.

[dual disc 200]

This post will have no pics as at the moment as whatever had unfolded in a time of 5-6 mins, I couldn't or didn't think about doing that. It all started when I along with my family consisting of my wife and two kids were traveling down from Ooty via Kotagiiri route in our humble 2006 Maruti Alto. Although they had left to Ooty couple of days back in a cab to visit her parents, I was double-minded about taking the Fiesta 1.6 Sport of the Alto and finally settled for Alto as she never saw any kms in the past few months. We usually take the Kotagiri route for 2 things, one for the serene beauty it offers and secondly for the less traffic that the road offers than the regular Coonor route.

We started about 3 P.M from Ooty, did a few snack shopping to nibble on the way and headed towards home. The climate was fantastic with downpours here and there making the driving pleasure even more fantastic than ever. The smaller car with a lesser powerful engine was all surpassed by the beautiful weather the hills offered. I was giving way to all the vehicles who were in a hurry and kept my pace with a steady 35-40 kms speed downhill.

We reached Kotagiri only to find dry as there was no rains at all. Stopped for a coffee break and we started the journey again. It was then the things started to unfold.

As we were driving, I could see a white BMW X1 TN-66-X-XXXX trying to pass me multiple times with his nose on my ORVM that's about to say a Hi by touching it. I was stunned and told my wife that that guy is on a suicidal mission and would do anything to pass us. I couldn't let him pass as I myself were trailing behind a convoy of vehicles who all were well versed with hill driving and knew passes woudn't be possible until and unless the truck or bus ahead stops to let us pass or they get a clean exit.

In the meantime, the X1 was playing hide and seek game, a game so close to real life that I could literally smell his brake pads burning which I told my wife multiple times.

Just when I thought of ending this dangerous game by slowing down and letting him pass, without any notice he surged passed ahead thinking of passing multiple cars. As we all knew it was a blind corner and anything might be waiting in the opposite direction, we all played safe. As luck would sometimes bite the dust, there was this tipper lorry approaching in the opposite lane.

Without further ado, the X1 steered into my lane taking almost a 90 deg left and braked hard. Just then I realized and it was too late and ended up rear-ending the X1. Although I braked real hard, there was absolutely no space for me to veer off or move ahead with the wheels locked.

First comes first, looked behind and saw my kids were Ok but in panic, as they've never experienced such a thing before and I hope this would be the last time ever. Wifey was ok too, switched off the engine and came out of the car and then the X1 guys started off saying that I had to brake within whatever the distance they had given. It was not less than 3-4 meters and the weird angle it was parked in front of my car proved useless. In fact, the BMW was unscathed and my alto front bumper on the left side broke.

The conversation took a nasty turn of this was only an Alto and theirs was a BMW. That was the very minute I realized how important was the dashcam. If I had only taken the Fiesta out that day, I would have been legally strong to go however far I had wanted to.

Few cars stopped by and offered us water who themselves told to the BMW driver that he was overspeeing right from the start. As usual, the statements were unacknowledged as he was pointing me about hitting his car.

Wife came out of the car and gave them a piece of mind which they were again blamed on me. Finally as wifey told me that there's no arguing with people who don't possess ethical manners and seems intoxicated. They started moving without any apology or whatever for their rude actions.

I wanted to call the cops, but wifey insisted that we move on cutting down the losses that are only materialistic and nothing human in nature.

In the whole situation I learned two things from the incident;

1. Having a bigger and a better car will always give you the leverage of voicing out even if you're completely on the wrong side.
2. A Dashcam would have screwed them if I had only installed in the daily driver Alto, which I would very soon.


At the end of the day, my family had both good and bad times with everyone safe and sound. That was all it matters to me.

Alto would go for a new bumper this week and her journey would start again.

[procrj]

A dashcam today on any vehicle is a no brainer. Sometimes I am sorely tempted to use my SJCAM while driving my 2 wheeler to work.

1. Having a bigger and a better car will always give you the leverage of voicing out even if you're completely on the wrong side.

Not necessarily. A bigger car also implies that you have more money and hence you can afford to foot the bill even if you haven't committed the mistake. I have been in that situation a few times while driving in city traffic and the only thing that saved me was the dashcam. The minute you point to the dashcam and say police station, cabbies/auto drivers/support groups all tend to quickly dissipate.

I have seen a few morons who want to test their limits on curvy roads and I just drop speed, hug the shoulder and let them move on. The best part of driving on twisty roads is the air and the smell, wonder why people are in a screaming hurry to get away from it.

[abhi7013]

A similar incident on the mysore road forced me to buy a dashcam. But still i believe we need two cams, for front and rear in India!
Glad that there were no untoward incidents post the accident but would strongly advice you to go for a dashcam once you get the alto repaired!

Coming to bigger car having the upper hand, i had a feeling that its always the bigger vehicle that is more vulnerable to be blamed. Looking at your experience though, i feel its not the vehicle but ignorance and attitude of the driver that tips the scale eventually.

[Dry Ice]

Originally Posted by dual disc 200

In the whole situation I learned two things from the incident;

1. Having a bigger and a better car will always give you the leverage of voicing out even if you're completely on the wrong side.
2. A Dashcam would have screwed them if I had only installed in the daily driver Alto, which I would very soon.

At the end of the day, my family had both good and bad times with everyone safe and sound. That was all it matters to me.

Alto would go for a new bumper this week and her journey would start again.

Glad you guys made it back safe and sound. End of the day, that's all that matters.

Big or small car is not a major concern. In fact, big car can become a liability sometimes. If a crowd gathers, they immediately side with the smaller vehicle, whosoever be at fault. And you can't reason with a mob.

With such lunatics, it's always better to let them go, and not even tail them because they are bound to stop abruptly at some point. In similar situations, I let such guys pass along with few others, and then enjoy my drive peacefully.

I am past the stage now where I try to reason with such fools, there are simply too many of them out there. Keep your sanity and drive defensively.

[prithm]

I m glad that you & your family are alive to see to another day. Every part of a car can be replaced or entire car be trashed,not human lives.

Though, you should have become alert of the antics by that X1 & slowed down to give way to defaulter. You cannot stop him from committing mistake, but you can surely save yourself from misery.

Even with dash cam, be vigilant. Tables can turn otherwise if opposite party is unruly & aware that they are caught red handed.

In presence of family, do not get into argument with unruly drivers. Not everyone is chivalrous.

Take a deep breathe & wish karma will take care of rest. The only mantra going forward.

[chandrda]

Glad to read that you and your family are safe and unharmed.

There is no use getting into a verbal duel with such morons who don't even posses the basic civic sense, let alone the rules of driving. The safety of the family comes first and I concur with your wife's decision to move on.

I keep travelling to Coorg and have encountered such ignorant drivers many a times on ghats, used to chase them and get into a verbal fight many times. But now with a 2 year old daughter and son old enough to understand all the swearing, I just pull over for few minutes and let the traffic move ahead when I see such drivers.

Have dashcam on both my cars and it has helped on several occasions, once even saved me from paying no parking fine.

Regards

[lambuhere1]

Originally Posted by jaaz

How about Dashcam at rear? So that they run simultaneously? Not sure about the clarity as the Windshield glass and the Rear glass are different.

Works perfectly.

Have been using for more than 2 years. No challenges. For additional security, have a powerbank in between the sources of power to dashcams. It helps when the vehicles are switched off and powerbank powers the dashcam.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by lambuhere1

It helps when the vehicles are switched off and powerbank powers the dashcam.

Please don't - a parked car becomes like a red hot oven inside! related thread.

[Lobogris]

Originally Posted by dual disc 200

1. Having a bigger and a better car will always give you the leverage of voicing out even if you're completely on the wrong side.

I am glad you and your family escaped without any injuries and with minimal financial loss. The main advantage of a "bigger and better car" is safety. Why would you take your family out on a long trip in an Alto when a bigger and better Fiesta is available? The Fiesta is better built and might even have ABS and airbags. One should always procure and use the safest possible vehicle one can afford without any regard to sentimentality.