In your car accident claim, actual footage of the accident can be amazing evidence. This way, the jury does not have to rely on what you say happened; you can just show them. The Georgia Department of Transportation (DOT) has cameras set up around the state, but can you access this footage for an accident case?
Georgia’s DOT cameras are there for monitoring the flow of traffic in real time. These cameras don’t record footage and they do not store the millions of hours of footage they record. As such, you cannot usually get footage from these cameras, but local municipalities and cities might have their own cameras you can access. If that fails, local home and business security cameras might have caught the accident on video, allowing you to request a copy of that footage directly from the camera’s owner.
For help with your car accident claim, call the Georgia car accident attorneys at Howe Law right away at (844) 876-4357.
Do Georgia Department of Transportation Cameras Record Footage?
According to 511, a traffic monitoring service administered by the Georgia DOT, the cameras that GDOT uses do not record footage. You can view live footage, and some sites claim to archive some of the publicly available footage, but GDOT has no service to record or distribute the footage that their cameras capture.
Instead, these cameras are only used to monitor live footage. If you act quicky, you might be able to pull screenshots from these cameras after an accident, but you cannot get past footage or rewind to see older footage.
Some departments of transportation around the country do collect and record footage so it can be reviewed in the case of an accident, but this requires them to have servers that can store and host hours upon hours of footage from many cameras. This kind of administrative cost is quite expensive, not to mention the cost of creating a system for requesting and distributing the footage. As such, Georgia does not record video from its DOT cameras and does not make it available, even to accident victims or police.
What Can Georgia DOT Cameras See?
Georgia’s 511 page shows 3,417 cameras hooked up as of the writing of this article, though some might be malfunctioning or having connection problems at any given time. These cameras are available for live monitoring online, so traffic controllers, police, DOT officials, and anyone with an internet connection can view what these cameras are seeing.
Many are set up at intersections to help monitor traffic conditions. So, for example, if you are about to commute to work, you can check how the traffic looks before getting in your car.
These cameras are not blurred or censored and show whatever is happening at the moment, with perhaps a slight delay due to internet speeds. The footage shows drivers’ faces, license plates, and any other visible information, though the camera quality is not exceptional and might make it hard to identify anyone from the footage or view any license plate numbers with clarity.
Do Other Government Agencies Save Traffic Camera Footage in Georgia?
Since the DOT does not record footage with its cameras, other cities and municipalities might take it upon themselves to set up cameras that do record and store footage. However, since this is quite an expensive process that requires a lot of upkeep and data hosting, it is rare. We are not currently aware of any local or city governments in Georgia that do record traffic camera footage.
Police departments often save video from their officers’ vehicle cameras and body cameras. Additionally, government buildings might have security cameras outside. If any of these cameras caught an accident on video, you might be able to request the footage.
Can You Get Other Camera Footage for a Car Accident Case in Georgia?
Although there might not be any DOT traffic cameras that record footage, there are millions of cameras in Georgia that do.
Security Cameras
Businesses and homes often have security cameras, especially given the more recent availability of networkable security cameras for everyday users. You can often contact the owners of these cameras and see if they might have caught your accident on camera, and they can give you a copy of the footage. Some local governments and police departments also keep lists of local camera owners for just such an occasion.
If you were involved in a car accident on a road that has homes or businesses, one of the things you can do in the aftermath of the crash is take a look up and down the block to see if you notice any security cameras on the houses there. Our attorneys can get in contact with homeowners and request that they preserve the footage or send us a copy. We can also contact businesses from that street to see whether their security cameras caught the accident.
Dash Cams
It is becoming more and more common for drivers to have cameras on their cars in case of accidents. Drivers with cameras are often willing to share the footage with you. They might have even stopped after seeing an accident to let the drivers and responding officers know that they recorded the crash on their dash cam.
Cell Phone Footage
When something happens, many people instinctively pull out their cameras and record it. If anyone happened to be recording while the accident happened and they come forward with the footage, that is great evidence. Even if they only started recording after the accident, that quick thinking might get you good evidence of the aftermath of the crash, such as a drunk driver stumbling out of the car.
Using Camera Footage as Evidence in a Georgia Car Accident Case
Footage can be used as evidence even if you did not personally record it. As long as you can “lay foundation” for the footage, it should be admissible as evidence. This means that you will have to confirm on the stand that you have reviewed the footage and that it accurately represents what you saw on the day of the accident. If you can meet these basic requirements and attest that the footage is relevant to the accident, our lawyers should be able to show it to the jury and use it as evidence.
Call Our Georgia Car Accident Attorneys for Help
If you or a loved one was injured in an auto accident, call Howe Law’s Dalton, GA car accident attorneys at (844) 876-4357 for a free case evaluation.
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