This past January, a truck driver was traveling northbound on an Ontario highway and was forced to steer into the guardrails to avoid a head-on collision with an oncoming tractor-trailer passing a snowplow. The oncoming driver failed to pull over, leaving the victim with limited options. Luckily, there were no injuries. The incident was captured by the driver’s dashboard camera (dashcam) and footage was submitted to provincial police. When they examined the video, the police were able to identify the driver and charges are being laid.
The video of the incident was posted on YouTube (warning: video contains some explicit language), and has received over 2.5 million views. Since then, there’s been a big buzz with drivers about dashcams. And for good reason! There’s a lot of benefit to having dashcams, like the outcome of this story, and they’ve proven valuable to drivers in countries where camera adoption is high, such as Russia and China.
The investment to get a dashcam is relatively minimal. And the confidence a driver or trucking company gains by knowing that they’ll have video evidence in the event of a road accident, theft, or hit and run is a big part of the draw.
There are a lot of other benefits, too, including transparency in claims situations and in smaller moving violations useful for owner-operators who have razor thin margins. Additionally, where owner-operators and small fleets may not have access to a full-time safety manager, dashcams can lend a hand in behaviour assessment and modification.
With a long-standing history in ensuring the safety and success of our mutual customers, we’re excited to announce that Northbridge Insurance has partnered with a leading Canadian dashcam provider to make high-quality devices easily available to transportation customers at a discounted price. Cameras are set to be available in late Spring 2014 at a discount rate. Keep an eye out, more details to follow soon!
Sources: YouTube
