Dashcam to the rescue: Trucker assists law enforcement twice — in two days — with video evidence

Updated Oct 30, 2016
howard-salmon-dashcam-car-crash-view

The video above is another from the dashcam of independent owner-operator Howard Salmon, from Sarasota, Fla., after having delivered one morning to an island resort, coming back across the causeway to the mainland. An impatient four-wheeler took the grass to pass a car in front of him and nearly hit two pedestrians. As you’ll see in the video, the flash of paper as the offending motorist stops at the next red light is Salmon preparing to take down the license-plate number as he himself comes to a stop.

“I called the cops,” Salmon says. “I said, ‘This guy almost killed two people walking on the shoulder.'”

He pulled off and waited for police to arrive, sharing a copy of the video and the license plate number, which ultimately resulted in the apprehension of the driver, as per this report from the local Fox affiliate:

The incident marked the second time in as many days in which Salmon had found himself the best witness to reckless motorist behavior. The following video shows an incident that happened the prior day in Palmetto, Fla., when a driver in an SUV took to the shoulder to blow by backed-up traffic on Highway 41 coming South out of the Tampa area, says Salmon:

Salmon installed the dashcam more than a year ago after a friend from his California days visited him in Wisconsin to assist with a home-security install, his primary business. “He says, ‘Hey, you need this,'” as Salmon tells it, referring to the dashcam. “I fought him a little bit about it. He said, ‘Trust me, you’ll like it.’ I kept it on, kept my chip in it, didn’t worry too much about keeping the windshield clean. For the last year, nothing’s happened, but I decided, big deal, it’s there.”

Lo and behold, the approximately $200 camera has proved its worth. The two incidents above represent the third in as many months where the camera provided critical evidence in a situation. Fortunately, these last two didn’t involve Salmon’s truck, like the last one:

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