In-car camera records accidents

Events recorded by the camera can be downloaded onto a computer

A new device which automatically captures the moments before and after a road collision has been tested by a chauffeur company in West Sussex.

DriveCam is an onboard camera which continuously records a journey, discarding the data every 20 seconds.

If an accident, swerve or emergency brake occurs it saves the 10 seconds beforehand and 10 seconds afterwards.

Tristar, a limousine company working out of Gatwick Airport, says it is the first to try the system in England.

Dangerous driving

The camera was developed in the US, where it is now standard issue in thousands of commercial vehicles.

DriveCam has been endorsed in the UK by the Institute of Advanced Motorists, which said results generated by the system in the US, combined with driver training, had cut the frequency and severity of accidents by up to 50%.

The camera is mounted behind the vehicle's rear view mirror and as well as being useful for resolving issues about the culpability of crashes can identify dangerous driving behaviour.

It works by collecting high risk driving events on a palm-sized colour video recorder, capturing what the driver sees and hears inside and outside the vehicle.

Anthony Withers Green, sales and marketing director of Tristar Worldwide Chauffeur Services, told the BBC News website the company would be analysing its trial of the system but the benefits were already apparent from the points of view of safety and corporate liability.

John Kane, director of DriveCam Europe, said the potential was for every vehicle, including private cars, to have the system fitted.