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It’s United Nation’s Road Safety Week, and QBE Insurance is encouraging businesses and motorists to embrace New Zealand’s dash cam usage trend, citing the devices’ significant potential insurance, financial, and safety benefits.
Dash cam devices provide a video recording of the environment in front of drivers, while some also record views from additional perspectives, allowing them to capture evidence of unsafe driving and road accidents. Footage can be useful in both police and insurance investigations, QBE New Zealand & Pacific chief customer officer Andrew Corbett said.
“We’ve seen an increase in customers providing dash cam footage at claim time – which in many cases has provided invaluable evidence, supporting fast and fair claim processing,” Corbett noted. “Footage has been particularly useful in situations where liability is unclear or disputed and in cases where a vehicle was unattended when an incident has occurred.
“As a commercial motor insurer, we know firsthand the devastation that can follow a motor accident, so we encourage drivers and businesses to consider dash cam systems not only to support them should they need to make a claim, but more importantly for their safety benefits,” he said.
QBE mentioned provisional figures from the Ministry of Transport, which shows 377 people were killed on NZ roads in 2018, while the social cost of crashes is $4.8 billion annually.
Meanwhile, Brake NZ director Caroline Perry believes dash cams and related systems could be part of the solution to addressing these figures.
“Some systems, popular with commercial vehicles and fleets incorporate dash cams with both forward-facing and inward-facing cameras,” Perry said. “These can alert the driver if they look like they’re falling asleep at the wheel, or not keeping their eyes on the road.
“They do this by tracking eye movements and the angle of a driver’s head, making this technology potentially life-saving. This helps to prevent crashes by keeping drivers alert, deterring use of smartphone devices, and ensuring they’re paying attention to the road,” she added.
The Road Safety Week in New Zealand is sponsored by QBE Insurance, and is championed by Brake, NZ Transport Agency, NZ Police, St John, Auckland Transport, and the Yellow Ribbon Road Safety Alliance.
