Dash cams in cars are almost as an iconic pairing as Bunnings and snags
- Near misses
- WTF/questionable drivers
- Natural hazards
- Randomly random
- Downright scary
- Outside of Australia
They may be helpful for insurance and security reasons, but dash cam footage is proving to be a source of great entertainment, bemusement and intrigue for Aussie car drivers and passengers. In 2019, insurance company Allianz revealed that one in five Aussie drivers record their daily commute with these tech gadgets and based on my own personal observations while out and about, I dare say this number has grown.
Alongside their use for potential insurance claims and to capture dangerous drivers, a lot of the footage also manages to find its way onto YouTube or other dedicated social media groups. One, Dash Cam Owners Australia has nearly 400k subscribers on its YouTube channel and over one million followers on Facebook, showing just how popular these clips can be.
While often capturing the worst of the worst drivers out there, they can also manage to record some other weird, creepy and WTF moments too.
Here are some of Australia’s best.
Near misses
Dramatic and often inducing a few f-bombs, footage of near misses can have you feeling like your heart is in your mouth.
Like this footage of a car towing a caravan attempting to overtake another caravan. It is clear this decision was ill-timed and misjudged with a head-on collision only very nearly missed.
This footage highlights the importance of why we look in our car mirrors and do head checks before changing lanes and what can happen when we don’t.
WTF/questionable drivers
They may not always be dangerous, but footage of these drivers makes you wonder how they got their licences, or why they still have one (if, of course, they do).
Now, this first clip is not of a car, but it is of someone riding on a motorway, in a vehicle (aka an electric scooter) not really equipped for one.
This clip though shows not just something questionable but also illegal. Upon seeing the roadside drug and alcohol testing site this car mounts the curb in full view of police in an attempt to escape, while I am not sure how successful they were, it definitely created entertaining footage.
And then there is this example of an absolutely terrifying road rage incident captured on a driver’s dash cam featuring none other than an axe-wielding driver.
Natural hazards
Eye-popping dash cam footage doesn’t always have to do with the driving itself. Take these freak weather events which were captured on Aussie roads for a prime example of the surprises nature can have in store for us.
The first clip from 2014, shows the intensity of a Victorian storm and the hazards it can create on our roads – in this case, a series of trees falling like dominoes across the road.
And this dash cam footage captures the terrifying moment lightning strikes this driver’s car.
Randomly random
And sometimes the things recorded are just plain weird.
From lost tyres, that just keep rolling and rolling…
To a snake hitching a ride on a car’s antenna – so very Aussie.
Downright scary
But perhaps my favourite types of dash cam footage are those eerie, spooky phenomena that sometimes cannot be explained.
This clip filmed on the Hume Highway in NSW, shows a mysterious child wandering alone on the road, in the dark. The small figure dressed in blue is believed by some to be a ghost – but either way – a child alone on a highway, or a child ghost- it is creepy.
Outside of Australia
And if this collection of Aussie dash cam footage sparked your interest, there is a whole world of the stuff outside of Australia – everything from creepy clowns, tornados, Bigfoot, wildfires, armed robberies, rockslides and more.
Keyword: The weirdest footage caught on dash cam from Aussie roads