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Transportation

Moscow Plane Crash Caught On Passerby's Dash Cam 253

Posted by timothy from the tape-it-all-let-god-sort-it-out dept.
acidradio writes "Yesterday a Tupolev 204 (Russian-made aircraft equivalent to an Airbus 321 or a shortened 757) overran the runway at Moscow Vnukovo airport and crashed into a nearby highway. A plane crash is always bad, but what makes this seem different is how well it was recorded. It seems like everyone in Russia has a dashcam, here is footage. A driver who just happened to be driving by on the nearby M3 highway (right about here on the map) is pelted by flying nose wheels and a row of coach-class seats! An accident like this has probably never been filmed so up close. We are getting better and better at recording accidents and disasters (whether by coincidence due to overuse of surveillance or maybe on purpose). What does that say about our level of documentation and recording of people's everyday lives? And what's the deal with dashcams in every Russian car?"
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Moscow Plane Crash Caught On Passerby's Dash Cam More

Moscow Plane Crash Caught On Passerby's Dash Cam

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  • One word: Lawsuits (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Kid Zero ( 4866 ) on Sunday December 30, 2012 @02:21PM (#42427099) Homepage Journal

    Seriously, Dash Cams are the best defense against scam artists.

    • Re:One word: Lawsuits (Score:5, Interesting)

      by sabri ( 584428 ) * on Sunday December 30, 2012 @02:35PM (#42427203)

      Seriously, Dash Cams are the best defense against scam artists.

      Or to prove that you weren't the culprit. Have a look at these videos, taken from my own dashcam in San Jose, CA:

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BgkCUbeuck [youtube.com]
      This is my wife driving. Watch the grey SUV on the right lane at 00:09.

      Or the "best" one I ever caught: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9g7H0-NelI [youtube.com]
      Skip to 00:50 for the action. You can clearly see the red car turning left on a red light. After the accident I provided first aid until CHP arrived (none of the injured had life threatening injuries). I lived close to the accident site so I drove home and burned the 1080p video on a DVD and gave it to the police.

      Two months later I get a call from the insurer of the red car. Apparently they were unaware of the existence of the video: "Are you sure you saw that the light was red? Are you really really sure? Really??". So I answer "I got it on video on my dashcam". "Oh, ok, thanks -click".

      • Re:One word: Lawsuits (Score:5)

        by hawguy ( 1600213 ) on Sunday December 30, 2012 @02:49PM (#42427285)

        Seriously, Dash Cams are the best defense against scam artists.

        Or to prove that you weren't the culprit. Have a look at these videos, taken from my own dashcam in San Jose, CA:

        The Youtube page says you're using a dod-tec GS600 dashcam -- are you happy with it? The Amazon page [amazon.com] for the camera has mostly 1 star ratings.

        I'm looking for a good, relatively inexpensive dash-cam. Something small that I can "set-and-forget" - mount it on the windshield, run 12V power to it and be reasonably confident that it's going to record everything without me needing to check on it or replace SD cards.

        • Re:One word: Lawsuits (Score:5, Informative)

          by Mononoke ( 88668 ) on Sunday December 30, 2012 @03:09PM (#42427399) Homepage Journal
          Not that you asked me, but I'm using the Roadhawk DC-1: http://www.roadhawk.co.uk/roadhawk-dc-1-car-black-box-camera/prod_18.html [roadhawk.co.uk]

          The Roadhawk is the best implementation of a black box camera I have seen. It has enough on-board backup power to write the necessary EOF so that the actually crash video isn't corrupted (that's where the dod-tec apparently fails). It stores incident (accelerometer triggered) video files in a separate folder so that aren't eventually written over. It creates 60 sec. standard MP4 video files that can be played anywhere, yet those same files when read with Roadhawk's Windows software also show accelerometer graphs, speed of travel, and GPS maps. "Incident" files get written as 20 sec MP4 files with the triggering incident at the 10 second point in the file. Yes, they sell to US customers also.

          • Re:One word: Lawsuits (Score:5, Interesting)

            by immaterial ( 1520413 ) on Sunday December 30, 2012 @03:48PM (#42427603)
            That camera looks pretty damn nice overall. But given that a simple GoPro can record quite clear 1080p, the 640x480 resolution seems anemic. Image quality isn't the absolute most important feature (as long as it is clear enough that you can see who did what), but I'd still love to find a great 1080p-capable dash cam (more likely to capture plate numbers of hit-and-runs or potential witnesses, etc.). I'm also a little wary of GPS data; normal flow of traffic around here is 5-10 MPH over the limit (depending on the road or freeway) and I'd hate to have someone entirely at fault for hitting me try to claim contributory negligence on my part based on my own recorded evidence (I'm sure someone here will take issue with this, but the camera is to cover my ass, not anyone else's).

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by dj245 ( 732906 )
              There are lots of these things on Aliexpress.com from a wide variety of sellers. Most of the reviews are from Russia but most of the models seems to have good ratings. Inexpensive and most of them do 1080p for less than $150. Depending on what features you can do without, you can get 1080p at less than $100. If you are wary of GPS data incriminating yourself, get a model without it. Some models you can turn it off.

            • Two words: Car Computer (Score:3, Informative)

              by Anonymous Coward

              "I'd hate to have someone entirely at fault for hitting me try to claim contributory negligence on my part based on my own recorded evidence".

              Well I hope you drive a pre 1980's car then, because if a fatality is involved the authorities will take a dump from your car computer which will tell all.

              So you really don't have a reason to be paranoid, because your car's computer is there to rat you out anyhow.

        • I've also been looking for a good dash cam and would love some input from Slashdotters. Every single one I've looked at so far seems to get terrible reviews, and/or requires its own proprietary windows-only software to view videos in some funky format (!!?).

          Earlier this year I was driving down the street and was suddenly hit by an old lady who was parked at the curb and suddenly pulled out to make a U-turn. Fortunately, as soon as our cars came to a crunching stop, I jumped out and snapped photos with my

        • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

          by Anonymous Coward

          I have one and they are teh crap.

          It often freezes up, recording nothing until you notice (blinkylight is not blinking) and press the reset button. The fact that it has a reset button should have made me suspicious. Sometimes it freezes up in such a way that I need to reformat the memory card in order to get it going again.

          So, you can't rely on it to have recorded anything in case you do have an accident. Not good.

          • I had problems with it recording sometimes as well, but then I got a Class 10 SD card and have had a 99% capture rate.

        • Both my friend and I bought the DOD GS600... one came with a bum controller, but we had the other one to use for setting it up. They've been reliable with very few lost videos (if it's in the middle of a 1 minute block and you shut off the car it may lose that clip.) Interestingly enough, we've had better luck using 5 minute blocks of video.

          We got it because it claimed 1080p video. We've mainly been using it in 720p because it looks about the same (ie: you can't read plates unless you are right up on the

        • I use a standard 4 channel home security recorder and mount a couple of standard home security cameras. Usually at least one over the rear view mirror, facing forward, and one facing to the rear.

          The DVR, like most others, is 12V so it is trivial to wire into the system so it comes on automatically. With a 500MB drive, it keeps about two weeks of recordings.

          The whole setup runs under 200 USD, 100USD for the DVR and about 35USD each camera.

          I haven't caught anything exciting, but I did recently "shame" a loca

      • This is my wife driving. Watch the grey SUV on the right lane at 00:09.

        I think your wife singing in the car is funnier. You could have cut this video at 00:10.

      • Re:One word: Lawsuits (Score:5, Funny)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) * on Sunday December 30, 2012 @03:26PM (#42427485) Homepage Journal

        This is my wife driving. Watch the grey SUV on the right lane at 00:09.

        In my country we either sound our horn for one long continuous 30 second blast to publicly shame the offender, or simply allow the accident and claim vast sums of $currency for whiplash injury compensation. I think you guys could learn from this.

        • Re:One word: Lawsuits (Score:5, Insightful)

          by CaptainLard ( 1902452 ) on Sunday December 30, 2012 @04:12PM (#42427711)
          Or you could just easily avoid the accident as the GP did and get home for dinner on time and rant for 3 min about some idiot on the road. In the process you'll save yourself an hour at the scene talking to police, 6 hours in the emergency room, 2 hours on the phone with your insurance, a week waiting for your car to get fixed, a day talking with your lawyer, a day or two in court/mediation, 1-2 years waiting for settlement negotiations, and then another 6-12 months for payment assuming its not doled out periodically over many years (*my numbers are wild speculation but the hassle is not). Seriously, bad drivers piss me off royally but I'd rather not give up potentially hundreds of hours of my life for spite and a small chance of a financial return greater than all of the work hours I missed if I can just avoid the accident. Not to mention if I actually did end up with whiplash and have neck problems for the rest of my life.People in your country should learn from slashdot nerds and get a hobby. Bad drivers suck but sometimes its best to just let it go.

      • Wow your videos hit a bit too close to home for me! I drive down that road in your first video all the time. I've also been considering getting a dashcam for the same reason you have one. My only concern is finding one that doesn't require a lot of fuss. I'm looking for something that auto-activates when the car is on and shuts itself off when the car is off. Ideally it'd roll over the video too, only keeping a memory of the last X hours. That way I only have to do anything with the dashcam when I actually

        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          by Anonymous Coward

          I've seen wrecks where people would back up into another car to deliberately cause an incident. Were it not for witnesses who chose to stay there and gave statements, the police would have faulted the completely wrong parties.

          I'm all for a good TV cam. If it is someone else's fault, it means that it is caught on film in full HD for a jury and insurance to look at. If it is my fault, that is what insurance is for. Using a TV cam means that in general, I am gambling that a wreck is going to be someone els

        • The DOD GS600 (the one the op uses) supports all that. I have one as well. I just get in the car and leave it plugged in. when it gets power it automatically starts recording to the SD Card and when it's out of space it will delete the oldest.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Maow ( 620678 )

        Or the "best" one I ever caught: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9g7H0-NelI [youtube.com]

        Skip to 00:50 for the action. You can clearly see the red car turning left on a red light. After the accident I provided first aid until CHP arrived (none of the injured had life threatening injuries). I lived close to the accident site so I drove home and burned the 1080p video on a DVD and gave it to the police.

        Two months later I get a call from the insurer of the red car. Apparently they were unaware of the existence of the video: "Are you sure you saw that the light was red? Are you really really sure? Really??". So I answer "I got it on video on my dashcam". "Oh, ok, thanks -click".

        Is there a separate left turn control for the red car? Because I watched the video and I saw green lights for traffic in both directions.

        Regardless, the red car obviously turned left whilst it was unsafe to do so, so they are still responsible. It's just that I can't determine any red light.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Mumford ( 5197 )

          Take a look at this screen grab [imgur.com]. I've circled the left turn control signals. They're clearly red as the car is coming into the intersection.

          • Re: (Score:3)

            by jamesh ( 87723 )

            Take a look at this screen grab [imgur.com]. I've circled the left turn control signals. They're clearly red as the car is coming into the intersection.

            Can such a device offer any proof that the resulting image (and in particular screen grabs) have not been tampered with? Changing that light from green to red would be a few minutes work with any decent image manipulation software.

            • Re: (Score:3)

              by Ocker3 ( 1232550 )
              In the absence of other contradicting data, video footage from a random bystander who has no stake in the outcome of the decision is going to be highly valued by the Police.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Myopic ( 18616 ) *

              It depends on your standards of "proof". Good enough for a US court? Yes.

            • Altering a video convincingly is much harder than an indivdual frame, though still possible.

              In this instance a there will be other evidence to back up the video: the sequencing of the lights will follow certain patterns for instance, so changing the colour of lights in the video is likely to create a sequence that simply isn't possible. In most cases where video or photographic evidence is accpeted, it is used in conjunction with other evidence rather than trusted on its face value alone because of how m

      • if you want to link to some specific moment in youtube clip, add timestamp to the url in the following format: #t=XmY (X minutes Y seconds, though seconds alone work too)
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BgkCUbeuck#t=0m9 [youtube.com]
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9g7H0-NelI#t=0m50 [youtube.com]

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      No, they're the best defense against police. When a policeman pulls you over and tries to extract a bribe, the dash cam is how you prove that you didn't follow too close, change lanes too suddenly, or whatever.

      dom

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by ls671 ( 1122017 )

        You will see what I will do of your dash cam and your silly evidence next time I stop you AC.

        Your friendly neighborhood sheriff.

    • Re:One word: Lawsuits (Score:5, Interesting)

      by JWSmythe ( 446288 ) <jwsmythe@nospam.jwsmythe.com> on Sunday December 30, 2012 @04:27PM (#42427781) Homepage Journal

      To start, I'm an American, living in the United States.

      I started recording all my driving a few months ago. I got a red light ticket, and I specifically remember the light being green until it was out of view, obscured by the roof of my car.

      I've also been in car accidents, where people lie about what happened. There have also been incidents where the police make wild claims about my driving which just weren't true. "Careless driving" where you were swerving in the lane is hard to argue in court, but easier with video proof.

      My logic is, rather than let my word stand up in court, let the video testify for me.

      Since I'm recording with my phone, it eliminates any question of if I'm texting or talking on the phone while I'm driving. I can't. The phone is busy recording. If I had a second phone, you'd hear me talking. The only talking you hear is the radio, or if I dictate license plates.

      I'm using the Android app "Torque Recorder". It's not perfect. Well, it's much less than perfect. It does record my OBDII information, but when it encodes to combine the data, the data and video skew. It's about 5 seconds in 15 minutes of driving. It also sucks down the battery in my phone horribly. In a 2.1A charger in the car, it drops about 2% in 30 minutes. Without charging, it will have sucked about 90% of the battery in 30 minutes.

      The other problem is the video quality. It's fine for seeing which car did what, and ambient noises. You can't read license plates. That's why I dictate the occasional license plate. If someone is driving badly, and I think there might be a problem, I already have the plate dictated which can be heard on playback. It also gets confused about focus. There's no setting for manual focus, and sometimes it'll focus back to the windshield rather than the objects in front of the car. Like, if it's raining, the focus changes from windshield to cars when the wipers sweep by.

      Sometimes the Torque Recorder encoding program can't actually encode the stored video. The video is just MP4, so it's fine. It just doesn't have the vehicle data included. If it had to go to court, I can provide the data file, since it's just a CSV.

      So far, I've been lucky. There have been some lunatics. I've had to make extreme maneuvers to avoid them, but so far there has been no accident. Lately, I've caught the end result of two accidents resulting in fatalities (after the police arrived, not the accident itself), and lots of smoke from people locking up their tires skidding to a stop just short of accidents.

      I don't worry about it while I'm driving. I just have to remember to start it when I start driving, and stop it when I get to my destination.

      Since it's recording some select OBDII information, I have my throttle position and actual ground speed recorded, rather than trusting the

      I intend to work on my own app, and hopefully fix the video quality, battery life, and encoding problems.

      Hopefully I'll never be "lucky" enough to catch a plane crash.

  • Frosty piss? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Bearhouse ( 1034238 ) on Sunday December 30, 2012 @02:22PM (#42427111)

    Easy answer to this - I was working in Moscow all this year. If you have an accident, you HAVE to wat for the police to come to make an official report, (otherwise your car insurance will not pay out).

    When they get there, the person with the biggest bribe gets the favourable report...

    So, better to have a dashcam...

    • Yeah, yeah..."wait"', sorry...fucking virtual keyboards...

    • Re:Frosty piss? (Score:5, Funny)

      by dotancohen ( 1015143 ) on Sunday December 30, 2012 @07:30PM (#42428709) Homepage

      Easy answer to this - I was working in Moscow all this year. If you have an accident, you HAVE to wat for the police to come to make an official report, (otherwise your car insurance will not pay out).

      When they get there, the person with the biggest bribe gets the favourable report...

      So, better to have a dashcam...

      That's a good thing, too. I imagine that the airline could afford a bigger bribe than the dashcam driver.

  • Dashcams (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 30, 2012 @02:22PM (#42427113)

    Dashcams provide proof of what happened in a culture full of corrupt law enforcement officers.

    • Re:Dashcams (Score:5, Interesting)

      by CdBee ( 742846 ) on Sunday December 30, 2012 @02:26PM (#42427141)
      And - it has regrettably to be said - in a culture full of batshit-insane drivers. Even President Medyedev has gone on the record as stating that the Russian Federation has a lot of very poor and excessively reckless drivers.

      Someone once told me that in Russian the words for yield/give way and surrender are identical and Russians surrender to nobody. Don't know if that's true. Not sure I want it to be....

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by nmb3000 ( 741169 )

        And - it has regrettably to be said - in a culture full of batshit-insane drivers.

        No joke. There are some pretty crazy Russian dashcam/streetcam compilations on Youtube.

        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFw1dpGw9uQ [youtube.com] (0:55).
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkvX9SVAlk0 [youtube.com]
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTb4CGhp_eo [youtube.com]
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XB-B3Bqsm4 [youtube.com] (2:52, 8:30)
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiBLfLcUmZs [youtube.com] (11:02)

        It seems to be a combination of driving too fast for conditions (and/or bald tires) and assuming everyone else will jump the hell out of your way.

        • No joke. There are some pretty crazy Russian dashcam/streetcam compilations on Youtube.

          What is this word "blyad" that I keep hearing on those videos?

          • Re:Dashcams (Score:5, Informative)

            by Loki_666 ( 824073 ) on Sunday December 30, 2012 @09:18PM (#42429455)

            Its a typical swear word, used similar to how we use "shit" or "fuck". Other common ones are "yo moyo" "yob tvoyu mat" "pizdetz" and "kazul". Last one means literally "goat" and you shout it at other drivers who cut you up and stuff while making a variety of hand signals.

            Driving in Russia is a fun game, but not for the faint of heart. Generally any drive of more than a kilometer or two around a city will enable you to see an accident or three.

            If you are in an accident it usually takes several hours for the police to arrive, which is just lovely when the temperature is -20 or -30.

            A previous poster mentioned that whoever gives the bigger bribe gets the better report, and its pretty true. Most road police will accept bribes, even though there was a big purge against corruption in my city a few years ago, things got a little better after that. Having a car video is a definite good idea.

    • Re:Dashcams (Score:4, Insightful)

      by ultranova ( 717540 ) on Sunday December 30, 2012 @03:05PM (#42427383)

      Dashcams provide proof of what happened in a culture full of corrupt law enforcement officers.

      And if proof matters, you don't yet know the real meaning of corruption.

  • Dash car cams (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 30, 2012 @02:22PM (#42427117)

    The dash car cams is because of a law that allows people to sue the driver if they get hurt. Lots of people pretend and pretty much jump in front of slow moving cars because its one of the easiest way to make money

  • In Soviet Russia... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 30, 2012 @02:23PM (#42427121)

    In Soviet Russia, plane boards YOU!

  • Dash cams are in Russia because.. Russia's Russia. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 30, 2012 @02:28PM (#42427163)

    The driving in Russia is absolutely horrible. That's precisely the reason why so many people over there have dash cams.

    As a matter of fact, as with anything else, there are a number of compilations of Russian dashcam videos that show some pretty outrageous things.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlxHPJAONpE
    No wrecks in any other country have anything on Russia. Seriously.

  • have you never seen this? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 30, 2012 @02:30PM (#42427171)

    Russian pedestrians diving under cars to try and get compensated for an accident.
    http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=c12_1349902324

  • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AK Marc ( 707885 )
      Yup, looked like aftermath only. A wheel, some seats, and assorted debris crossing a road that the plane itself did not. The real question though is, did they fine the pilot for littering?

    • Re:Exaggeration (Score:4, Informative)

      by PNutts ( 199112 ) on Sunday December 30, 2012 @03:43PM (#42427577)

      If you watch it in slow motion, you see an intact jet fuselage disappear (probably into a ditch) and then see the results of it slamming into the other side with debris flying up and over. That was the real crash, not the plane 4 wheeling off-road after overrunning the runway. I assume there were some kind of arresting barriers but if those wheels were from the nose gear the barriers sure didn't do much. The moments before this video were probably boring with the plane simply continuing on past the runway. The final impact was the money shot. Another angle would have been Hollywood perfect but in real life you take what you can get.

    • You're right, you don't get to see it but you get to see the guy probably shit himself and he probably feels like the luckiest guy in Russia.

  • Every Russian has a dash cam because.... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Above ( 100351 ) on Sunday December 30, 2012 @02:45PM (#42427267)

    Every Russian has a dash cam because the insurance company and courts there have a history of not paying out a dime unless you have proof. Where Americans seem to think in a "reasonable doubt" methodology from our courts, in Russia it's apparently "any doubt at all" and you lose. So if someone hits you while you're parked and they show up and say you ran into them you'd better have video or witnesses or something or no money for you!

    Other countries seem to have systems that skew that way, and thus more dash cams (China, Taiwan, Korea), but not the quantity of videos. I think that's due to the bad Russian driving, there's simply more wild videos coming out of Russia than anywhere else!

    Over at Jalopnik [jalopnik.com] there is an entire section devoted to Russian dash cams [jalopnik.com]. If you waste the next few hours watching them all it's not my fault!

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Every Russian has a dash cam because the insurance company and courts there have a history of not paying out a dime unless you have proof. Where Americans seem to think in a "reasonable doubt" methodology from our courts, in Russia it's apparently "any doubt at all" and you lose. So if someone hits you while you're parked and they show up and say you ran into them you'd better have video or witnesses or something or no money for you!

      Other countries seem to have systems that skew that way, and thus more dash cams (China, Taiwan, Korea), but not the quantity of videos.

      That sounds pretty crazy.

      Car accidents never go to court in Australia, one of the two drivers always freely admits to being at-fault and their insurance company always pays out (or else the two insurance companies will sue each other).

      If both drivers claim to be innocent, then it will go to court — and the punishment for lying to a police officer about events during the crash will be so harsh, nobody within a few degrees of separation will ever dare try it again. Jail time for sure.

      If possible, and if

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) *

      I wanted to have a system that notices when my parked car is bumped and takes photos/videos of everything around it. Then I realized that if someone dented it opening their door (car park spaces keep getting smaller, cars keep getting bigger) it wouldn't capture their number plate and would thus be useless.

      A simpler option would be to just record any movement events with an accelerometer. By noting the exact time of the bump you could then request CCTV footage of the incident from the car park operator (law

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Or just realise that you regularly leave your car unattended outside, at the mercy of nature and people in the area, and don't worry about small dents and scratches. Leave the dents there and just polish off the scratches to prevent rust. Cars need to look shiny and pristine only if you're foolish enough to believe everything the marketing department tells you.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by PNutts ( 199112 )

          Or just realise that you regularly leave your car unattended outside, at the mercy of nature and people in the area, and don't worry about small dents and scratches. Leave the dents there and just polish off the scratches to prevent rust. Cars need to look shiny and pristine only if you're foolish enough to believe everything the marketing department tells you.

          My car got bumped a few days ago and now the backup object sensor is giving "false positives". Yeah, first world problems, but now I have to decide if the beep is bogus or my kid is behind the car. I'll have to fix it $$$ or turn it off and validate about what's behind me like I did for 31 years and humans have done for about 250 years but that's one of the safety features that made me buy this particular car after spawning. I don't give a hoot about the missing paint on the bumper or the four year old dent

          • What? It wasn't a good idea to put an expensive part into a 'bumper'? Who could have guessed?

            Nav systems, backup cams etc are exactly like stereos, you are a fool to pay the OEM their price.

        • Cars need to look shiny and pristine only if you're foolish enough to believe everything the marketing department tells you.

          Never heard of the broken window theory, have you?

          It works on the owner too. It's nothing to do with marketing, I keep my car washed regularly because if you care enough to keep the car clean, you are also thinking about other issues - like should I get the oil changed yet, should I ignore that noise etc.

          It also helps you notice things like scratches earlier so you can take care of th

          • It also helps you notice things like scratches earlier so you can take care of them, otherwise you might lose the car earlier than you should to rust. That's simply wasteful.

            Depends on where you live. In many parts of the world cars don't rust quickly enough to matter even if the paint gets scraped.

            • It also helps you notice things like scratches earlier so you can take care of them, otherwise you might lose the car earlier than you should to rust. That's simply wasteful.

              Depends on where you live. In many parts of the world cars don't rust quickly enough to matter even if the paint gets scraped.

              And in other parts of the world (like much of the US north) they pour so much salt on the roads in the winter that it isn't going to make any damn difference, unless you're touching up those scratches on the underside and hard-to-get-at places, where the salt works its magic. The body will probably last 15 years and then rust out, no matter how much you touch up and wax the outside surfaces, because that's not where the killer rust occurs.

    • Wow, you know it's messed up when they have a term just for fatal accidents "Last seconds alive" or whatever..... http://jalopnik.com/5969514/the-craziest-russian-dash-cam-videos-of-2012/gallery/1?tag=russian-dash-cams [jalopnik.com]

  • Dashcams (Score:5, Interesting)

    by zyzko ( 6739 ) <`kari.asikainen' `at' `gmail.com'> on Sunday December 30, 2012 @03:01PM (#42427363)

    Apparently, dashcams are as popular as GPS devices in Russia, and you can get a basic model for an equivalent of about 40 euros, and an advanced model is as pricey as an advanced GPS is (with nice features). And the reason to get one can be seen in Youtube, if you are pretty much run into by a car with government plates you better have some hard evidence that you were not the culprit. As the traffic is often worse than in southern Europe (where there is a lot of honking and hand-waving, even "pushing it through" but people are used to minor dents in cars in cities and they don't often care) compared to the fact that there is a lot of high-priced cars in Russia and insurance money is big factor, plus as an added bonus police can be corrupt and the one with biggest handout on the scene gets the money from the insurance because of the police report.

    I live near a pretty busy skiing resort in Finland where there are a lot of Russian tourists this time of year. Most of them do drive responsibly. And I urge you to do so here abroad (we have a pretty decent police who can write accurate reports if there is an accident and are not for sale) as well as home. There is no rush here, just relax on the Sunday-traffic off the resort. Don't be a jerk in traffic, really.

    • That explains the prevalence of dashcams in Russia. But even in the year 2000, there were enough people driving with cellphones that could take pictures and with videocameras on them as they drove that some interesting videos and images were captured even then.
      -- the Concorde crash [wikipedia.org] after takeoff at Charles De Gaulle airport; has footage of the flames coming out of the engines
      -- whenever there's a light-airplane, experimental airplane crash that occurs soon after takeoff (i.e. right near the airport runwa

    • Apparently, dashcams are as popular as GPS devices in Russia, and you can get a basic model for an equivalent of about 40 euros, and an advanced model is as pricey as an advanced GPS is (with nice features).

      This is the case for anyone to whom DealExtreme ships... It's about a hundred bucks for one worth owning, though.

  • And what's with dashcams in every Russian car? (Score:3)

    by AK Marc ( 707885 ) on Sunday December 30, 2012 @03:02PM (#42427369)
    Obviously to record that the crash of the landing gear into your car wasn't your fault.

  • I wonder, did the driver of the car hit by the wheel had remarkable driving skills or the car was stabilized by the ESP?

  • Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Sunday December 30, 2012 @03:05PM (#42427385)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • It's not like people haven't crashed planes to see what happens [discovery.com] and filmed it from all sorts of angles.

  • Seriously, cams are pretty cheap. I would think that somebody with a decent inexpensive system would be able to put up loads of cams all over runways, etc. This is not for use in insurances, but more for NTSB, and the equivalence at other nations. Basically, it is useful to see why/how an airplane loses control. And keep in mind that the vast majority of accidents occur at landing/take-off.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gr8_phk ( 621180 )
      That's what the black box is for. It records all the interesting sensor data - enough to reconstruct any view you want via CG. The only thing it can't tell you is if anything is already missing prior to the crash like at Reno last year. But I agree, an automated system to record every departure and landing from a couple angles shouldn't be very expensive.
  • I might never complain about poor seating again, at least the last time I flew I arrived inside the airplane.
  • Even almost thirteen years ago in the year 2000, there were enough people with cellphones on them at all times who could take pictures and with videocameras on them as they drove people to/from the airport that some interesting videos and images were captured even then.
    .
    -- the Concorde crash [wikipedia.org] after takeoff at Charles De Gaulle airport; has footage of the flames coming out of the engines
    -- whenever there's a light-airplane or experimental airplane crash that occurs soon after takeoff (i.e. right near the ai

  • Youtube pulled it, but LiveLeak has the goods: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=16d_1356820592 [liveleak.com]

  • Can the police (in some jurisdiction) subpoena the video when it may give evidence against me? Can they punish me for destroying the evidence? Can I hide the video unit so that they won't know I have it? Do any of these units broadcast a signal that can be detected by law enforcement or others? Does your chewing gum lose its flavor on the bedpost over night?

    disclaimer: I'm a good boy and haven't had an incident in decades, but just in case...

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