Russia’s romance with dashboard cameras came in handy Friday, perfectly capturing the moment when a 10-tonne meteor crashed to Earth, injuring 1100 people as sonic blasts shattered windows.
Videos poured onto Youtube showing the meteor zipping across the sky from the vantage of dash-cams, but the technology is not all about voyeurism and star-gazing.
According to Al Jazeera, an estimated one million Russian motorists use dash-cams to document and prevent police corruption, false accident claims, and brutal road rage.
“Dash-cam footage is the only real way to substantiate your claims in the court of law,” wrote New York Blogger Marina Galperina last year in an article about Russian cam culture.
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“The Russian Highway Patrol is known throughout their land for brutality, corruption, extortion and making an income on bribes,” wrote Galperina, explaining the cams won’t protect you from being extorted for cash, but will help prevent falling victim to false claims and bribe hikes.
“Sometimes drivers back up or bump their pre-dented car into yours. It used to be a mob thing, with the accident-staging specialists working in groups. Since the Age of the Dash-cam, hustle has withered from a flourishing enterprise to a dying trade, mainly thriving in the provinces where dash-cams are less prevalent.”
For a glimpse of what the cams spot every day, Jalopnik compiled a collection of the craziest Russian dash cam videos.
Here are some dash-cam videos of the meteor:
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