Dash cam footage ‘gold’ for road police
A surge in dash cam footage exposing dodgy driving is being welcomed by police, who say the evidence is ‘‘gold’’.
Jaz Smith captured some risky passing by a Jucy campervan on her dash cam on Tuesday, days after Stuff ran a story showing a driver overtaking on double yellow lines, just avoiding a head-on collision that was also caught on camera.
Smith’s video shows a Jucy campervan overtaking a truck and trailer on State Highway 4 in the King Country. After following the truck, the camper overtakes on a short straight piece of road, which goes into a bend.
The camper narrowly misses being hit by a ute coming in the opposite direction around the bend.
Waikato road policing manager Inspector Jeff Penno said dash cam footage was incredibly helpful for police and they were noticing more people had it.
‘‘For us it is gold,’’ said Penno. ‘‘It provides evidence.’’
Penno said police would follow up on the public’s dash cam evidence of dangerous driving. ‘‘If we get that footage we will act on it.’’
In order to investigate they also had to have the registration number of the vehicle involved. ‘‘A lot of those vehicles have passengers; what are they doing and what are they saying to the driver? Because they will be [potentially] killed or injured.’’
Penno said having more dash cams on the road meant people could provide evidence of dangerous driving, and it also made drivers think twice about how they drove. Instead of only keeping an eye out for police, bad drivers faced having a potential witness with video evidence in any other car on the road around them.
As the technology became cheaper, Penno believed it would echo the effect when the *555 number was introduced. ‘‘We got some excellent apprehensions from the *555.’’
Smith said she was shocked when the camper decided to overtake on the bend.
‘‘What kind of person would try to overtake on that corner? It was not just a car, it was a truck and a massive trailer [they were passing].
‘‘They had no way of knowing what was coming from around that corner.’’
Smith said she had passed on the dash cam footage to police. I think it is good, everyone should have one.’’