UncleEbenezer wrote:bungeejumper wrote:Dod101 wrote:AndyPandy wrote:I've had another no-fault crash since and one of the first things my insurer asked was to send in footage if I had it.
Are you then prone to accidents as a result of your dashcam or because of it?
Dashcams have been selling in large numbers for seven years now. That's not a particularly tight space of time in which to have two no-fault accidents.
Perhaps Dod's point is that "no-fault" is generally an oversimplification and almost always a misnomer.
Near-misses happen all the time. Someone has a lapse of concentration or does something actively stupid, others in the path of potential trouble successfully avoid it - perhaps with a bit of a scare on the way.
An accident involving more than one party happens when
both parties fail to prevent it. The one who caused the near miss, plus the one who failed to avoid it. The latter is legally deemed not at fault, but the case in which there's absolutely nothing they could've done is extremely rare. Hence the phrase "accident-prone" applied to those who have "no-fault" accidents more than perhaps once in a lifetime.
Yes I think that the "failure to avoid" part of that is very important. In my experience that derives from having a paranoid approach to driving, such that I am constantly trying to anticipate what other drivers will do, making sure never to under-estimate the rank stupidity of many of them. This might include such tactics as leaving a bigger gap between myself and other vehicles, and slowing down when approaching junctions "just in case".
There is an entire concept called defensive driving which is based on such principles, and I was fortunate to take advanced driving classes when I was fairly young, which helped me develop a style of driving which confers a greater margin of safety than most drivers that I see out there.
And whilst I would be wary of self-identifying as an "expert" driver or even a "better" driver, I do believe that I am a safer driver and I do not drive at high speeds. I have had just one accident in the 50 years I have been driving, and that was relatively minor with no injury. Much of that driving has been in the crowded south-east of the country, plus in Los Angeles which takes a rather different set of driving skills.
Personally I would regard having two accidents in 7 years as being sufficiently "unlucky" that I might question my driving style and skills.
The Land Rover driver became aggressive, and a dash cam would undoubtedly have shut him up without the need for legal assistance.