Nearly three-quarters of drivers in the UK claim they have had a near-miss where they came close to having a car accident.
Nextbase, a dash cam manufacturer, surveyed 2,000 drivers, with 72 per cent reporting a near-miss. 36 per cent of these believe their near-miss accident would have been fatal to someone involved.
Seeing 14 separate incidents of illegal driving on the road every week was estimated by drivers, with 67 per cent seeing other drivers speeding on a weekly basis, 52 per cent witnessing tailgating and another 52 per cent seeing dangerous overtaking.
However, 75 per cent of respondents said they have never reported a road traffic incident to the police, with 41 per cent saying they didn’t have the necessary evidence or knowledge of how to do so.
Most of the UK’s 45 police forces are signed up to Nextbase’s National Dash Cam Safety Portal (only three aren’t signed up), which allows members of the public to submit footage of dangerous driving for review. So far, more than 57,000 submissions have been made, saving an estimated 458,000 hours (or 52 years) of police time.
Some 70 per cent of submissions to the portal lead to a form of action, including court cases, awareness course, fixed penalty notices and warning letters.
Head of road safety at Nextbase, Bryn Brooker, said: ““We created the portal to make roads safer. Road users can send in video from any device and help to get dangerous drivers off the road.
“Police aren’t just sitting on these videos – they are using them. Almost every force in the country is now signed up, with the remaining handful intending to do so soon. The system we built four years ago is not only helping police, it is removing dangerous drivers from the road.”
1 thought on “Almost three quarters of drivers claim to almost have had a car crash”
Most drivers if they have done no more than the standard (should be called ‘Basic’) driving test and are like the next crash waiting to happen. Most follow at two seconds or less (should be 2 seconds minimum) and therefore are not aware, of, or apply, safe following distances which makes them more crash vulnerable, considering that some 30% of crashes are related to close following. Front facing cameras are mainly going to prove that drivers could not pull up intime (HC 126). People getting into near crash situations are generally not reading the conditions. If they were more alert and aware they would not get themselves into vulnerable situations.