He started walking forward when I was about ~25 ft away. He was also walking sideways towards me even though it may not appear like it (it was much more obvious without the black boxes). As soon as he slammed himself on my car, he pretended to have hurt his ankle and rolled onto the ground as soon as he came off camera. When I got out of my car, I made sure not to mention my camera and basically cussed him out for about ten minutes until the police came.
There were five witnesses in total (including a driver just turning the corner behind me) and all said that I had hit the pedestrian. When the police came, I was pretty much the last person they interviewed (probably because I was all hot-headed and it looked like I was at fault). I showed them my footage straight from my camera, which at this point, the pedestrian already had lied if he had been hit. After they saw what was going on, they asked my if I would cooperate by providing them this footage so they can file charges, which I agreed to.
There was a very small dent on my hood and I didn't realize it was there until days later after this after seeing a slight imperfection on the reflection from the paint. They took down my information and I was free to go. I don't know what has happened to any of the witnesses and I'm sure they arrested the pedestrian. To this day, I received no follow-up.
What if the poor driver had no dashcam? He said the police believed the liar until they saw the footage.
That bastard should rot in jail for a long time
What I always wonder about cases like this:
Where are the injuries?
If the faker in the video has the cops show up , and he's writhing around in pretend pain, where are the scuffs? Where's the blood? Where's the bruising? The skinned knee? Or more importantly, broken bones and fractures?
It's common for Police when investigating alleged domestic abuse to find and photograph the marks associated with said abuse. Is this not also done with this kind of crap?
It's a little more complicated that that, which is why this scam has been so enduring. All you have to do is claim you're in pain. It's very difficult to prove otherwise, since there's no test to objectively measure it. You just have to be a good enough actor to wince at the right time when the doctors probe you.
Used to see this happen a lot when I worked in construction. One guy fell like 2ft, claimed he was in pain despite no physical damage. Two hospitals said he was full of bull. Finally found a quack doctor to vouch for him, and was got on workers' comp. I think this same guy was getting viagara courtesy of the government too, after claiming the fall prevented him from getting a woody. We all knew there was nothing wrong with him though.
The laugh is these people could probably make more money putting their talents to actual use than by grifting people. Say becoming a lawyer, which is just a professional term for a grifter.
It's becoming really important to have a dash cam now. Otherwise it really is your word against theirs. Eye witnesses are unreliable, so never count on other people to back you up. Machines don't lie.
What if the poor driver had no dashcam? He said the police believed the liar until they saw the footage.
That bastard should rot in jail for a long time
Or they were accomplicesOne of this biggest issues this really exposes is how unreliable 'eyewitnesses' are. They were all probably looking the other way until they heard some guy run up, smack some random dude's hood and scream.
Then suddenly, 'oh, I totally SAW that guy get hit!' No, you didn't. And your idiocy is scary as shit to think about in a country where 'witnesses' = convictions.
Where is a reputible place to get a dash cam? Like with ODBII bluetooth units, I'm sure there are 100's a knock offs and one that works. I saw the article that Jalopnik did, but it was over a year old and I'm sure things have greatly improved.