If you have ever been involved in a car crash, you know that often it's hard for the parties involved to agree on who's at fault. But a company started in Utah is trying to take the blame game out of the equation and keep Utahns accountable.
Collision Cam works with local businesses and residents to install traffic cameras at crash-prone intersections throughout the state and provide footage of crashes from the cams to drivers free of charge.
For drivers, the cameras are a welcome sight. "The nicest people in the world live in Utah, but when they get behind a wheel of a car, they lose their minds," stated Regis Johanns.
Tate Langston, one of Collision Cam's founders, says the company uses real data and public feedback to choose which intersections to focus on. "Typically, we will send out a GRAMA (Government Records Access and Management Act) request to the police department or the city, and we use that information to figure out where the most accident-prone locations were in the last six months."
FOX 13 News joined Collision Cam as they installed a new camera at a 7-11 on 7th East in Sandy. "We will pick that intersection or roundabout, and we will go talk to the business owners or homeowners and ask permission to put a camera up on their property," Langston explained.
It's such a good idea that it has some people wondering, "Why haven't we done this before?" The answer comes down to time and money, according to the Utah Department of Transportation.
While Collision Cam will get anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 a month from insurance companies, UDOT has more than 2,000 traffic cameras positioned throughout the state, and they don't actively record on any of them.
"They are there for the purposes of informing the public so that you can avoid unnecessary delays," UDOT's Public Relations Director John Gleason explained. "They help our crews and law enforcement handle these real-time traffic situations."
According to UDOT, the number of requests they would get for footage wouldn't be manageable. "... with 2,000 traffic cameras and trying to record on all those cameras, the storage, and the resources that it would take to track down video, I can't imagine how many people would be reaching out for those types of things," Gleason clarified.
UDOT says as long as Collision Cam continues to install cameras on private property, and out of UDOT's way, they can continue recording and turning over footage to those involved in crashes.
That is welcome news to Utah drivers that FOX 13 spoke with. "I think it's needed," Regis Johanns said. "I don't know if I am excited about more cameras, but maybe we need them anyway with the way people drive here."
Collision Cam currently has over 55 traffic cameras set up throughout the state and hopes to install 5 to 10 new ones each month. If you know of a problematic intersection that could use a camera or want footage from them you can contact them on social media.
