02/09/2026
Dash cam footage & exoneration
Something we didn't expect when we started digging into this data: recorded footage protects drivers far more often than most people assume. NTARC's 2025 crash data found heavy vehicles not at fault in 85.7% of fatal heavy-vehicle crashes - footage and GPS evidence are what turn that into a documented case instead of one driver's word against another's.
The bigger shift is what happens when that footage is tied into telematics rather than sitting on an SD card waiting to be manually pulled. The facts get established immediately instead of reconstructed weeks later from memory and paperwork.
There's a second layer worth knowing about too: systems that add coaching on top of the footage - flagging fatigue, distraction, tailgating in the moment rather than after the fact - turn "we have a camera" into "we have a safety program," which is a different thing entirely.
Curious how many fleets here are running dash cams purely for evidence versus actually using the footage for coaching. Our guess: most are still in the first category without meaning to be.