Dashcam Footage After a Car Accident: What Drivers Need to Know

Technology has made motoring safer in recent years in terms of improving the safety features in vehicles which help us drive more carefully and avoid accidents, but if an accident does occur, technology has also provided motorists with additional security and peace of mind, in the form of dashcams. Cameras mounted inside a vehicle are now commonplace in the UK, and they can be an important tool in providing credible evidence to support claims arising from road traffic accidents. But it is important that drivers understand how dashcam evidence should be used.

According to data released by Confused.com in 2025, around one in three drivers now have a dashcam installed, and around 37% of the 2000 drivers questioned have used dashcam footage to prove their innocence following a road traffic incident. Increasingly, dashcam footage is becoming a vital mechanism for reporting dangerous driving, but also for defending a driver’s own actions when disputes arise, and such is the prevalence of utilising dashcam footage when road traffic incidents escalate into legal disputes, it may not be long before they are fitted in all vehicles as standard.

Why dashcam footage is so important when a road traffic incident occurs

Although dashcam footage is usually submitted as evidence by an individual driver involved in a road traffic incident, it is accepted as impartial evidence which can’t be disputed. And because this is objective evidence, it helps to resolve disputes where the details of a road traffic incident either can’t be recalled or can’t be agreed upon. Dashcam footage can easily show:

• How a driver behaved in terms of road discipline.
• What speed the cars involved were travelling at.
• The sequence of events leading up to an accident.

This footage is particularly valuable because a lot can happen in the immediate aftermath of a collision on the road, and this can have a significant impact on how a matter is subsequently settled. It is difficult for drivers to think clearly or to act in their own best interests in the confusing and potentially traumatic few moments immediately after an incident, and hence a simple apology or asking after another person’s wellbeing can be misinterpreted, whether you were culpable in the accident or not. It is not even advisable to offer your own dashcam footage in these critical few minutes, because you don’t know what it will show, and you first need professional legal guidance from road traffic accident solicitors to understand how this footage may be used and what position it may put you in.

Ultimately, dashcam footage is more valuable than verbal witness statements and is particularly useful in establishing liability for an incident if this is being contested. It is also possible that dashcam footage from another vehicle either involved in, or in the vicinity of, the accident can show more evidence of the moments leading up to or causing the accident than your own footage, and this can strengthen your case. Of course, dashcam footage will support the evidence seen in the road and on other vehicles, but it should also support your own statement, so it is still important that your own verbal account is consistent with the dashcam footage.

When can dashcam footage be used as evidence?

Dashcam footage is commonly used as evidence when:

• Accounts differ on what happened in an accident.
• There is no independent witness evidence.
• Multiple vehicles are involved and it is not initially clear where liability lies, or if liability could be shared.
• Footage captures identifying details of a vehicle which fled the scene of an incident.

This footage is therefore vital in settling road traffic accident claims and personal injury claims and can be used to support the claims of people whose lives have been significantly affected by a road traffic accident. This is usually motor vehicle drivers, but can also include pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. If you have been involved in a road traffic accident and have dashcam footage of it, as soon as you can:

• Save the footage so it doesn’t get automatically deleted or overwritten.
• Get legal advice from a specialist road traffic accident solicitors, because footage can work both ways and could show that you are at fault and therefore liable or partially liable.
• Don’t edit or add to the footage with commentary, a solicitor needs the full unedited clip, otherwise this could raise suspicions and impact on your claim.

Previously, such claims have relied on witness evidence and verbal accounts which could be affected by honesty, as well as clarity in the difficult few minutes after an incident. But dashcams have grown to become an integral feature in settling claims quicker and with more transparency, as they can be instrumental in showing what actually happened in the moments leading up to a road traffic incident.

About the Author:
Leanne Keating is a Partner and Head of the Personal Injury Litigation Department at Bridge McFarland LLP’s Hull office.