Are car dashcams a necessity?

Earlier this morning someone forwarded to me this post from facebook

Translated summary : A Perodua Viva was hit by a cement mixer truck. When the victim went to report police, the police claimed that there was a witness who reported that it was the Viva who rammed into the truck. The Viva driver pleaded through social media for any witnesses to come forward. Luckily the car behind the Viva had a dashcam and recorded the whole thing.

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This reminded me why I had dashcams installed in my cars. A few years ago, a mate from my car group - @jun04035, crashed into the rear of a car who suddenly swerve into the lane. Lucky for him, the investigating officer did not immediately concluded it was his fault simply by looking at the damage of both cars, although ultimately both sides were fined and had to claim the repair costs from their own respective insurers.

@jun04035 didn't have a dashcam at that time, which would've been very handy to show it was clearly the other driver's fault. This prompted me to quickly order dashcams for my cars, and advised my family & friends to do the same.

Driving on Malaysian road has always been a fairly hazardous affair, especially in the cities where the traffic are a little more than controlled chaos. There are plenty of reckless and/or clueless drivers plying our roads - you could be minding your own business when some impatient nutjob decides to side swipe your car because he/she wanted to merge into your lane, then report to the police that it was your fault. \

image credit : utusan.com.my

The Viva driver in the aforementioned story was lucky someone behind recorded the accident - it would've been better if the Viva was equipped with it's own dashcam.

Car dashcams has become very affordable nowadays. Most of them are also easy to install and operate so there are actually very little reason not to install one in your car. Avoid the cheap ones under RM100 ($27 USD)as they usually have bad video quality and/or doesn't work well at night, but you can get a very decent unit for under RM150 ($38 USD). I bought two SpyTec G1WH for a little under RM200 ($55USD) each a few years ago, which I am still using today. It is an old model, but it is good enough for most conditions.

Back to the title of this post: Are car dashcams a necessity? I'd say YES!! It's a small investment that could last you a few years. If you don't have one, get one as soon as you can to protect yourself and your family when driving on the road.