Make sure to check dashcam legislation before driving abroad
If you’re planning on driving abroad this summer, be sure to double-check the restrictions on dashcams in the country or countries you intend to drive in.
Countries such as Austria and Portugal have a complete ban on the use of dashcams due to privacy laws, whilst in Luxembourg is it legal to own a dashcam but it is strictly prohibited to film in a public space.
In Austria, repeat offenders can be fined up to £22,000 for using a dashcam.
Had someone drive into me last year, no fault of mine but expensive damage. Dash cam proved my innocence, without it I was told it would likely go down as shared fault.
I really don’t see the issue with a device that can prove liability (or otherwise) or be used to stop criminality.
My objection to them is very simple- I am appalled by how so many citizens now assume it is socially acceptable to film their fellow citizens .In the case ,of dash cams , on every single journey . It is absurd - we already have sleepwalked into accepting more CCTV cameras than just about anywhere else apart from North Korea and , as if that is not enough , half of the population is now hell bent on filming the other half. And as for those who post their self righteous footage of others’ bad driving on YouTube and elsewhere , words fail me .
We have more extensive privacy laws than ever in the UK , but somehow we also tolerate a surveillance society - it’s bad enough when it’s the government , but it’s even worse when people become so paranoid and insecure that they feel the need to film everyone else.
I think if you experienced what we did this week and it was you in your MX-5 you may just be glad of a little dash cam footage.
That said, its the first time I’ve reviewed and used a section of dash cam footage in 4 years. The only viewing its had is by myself and now the police. In one officers words, that could have been so different if it was a motorcycle involved, you were lucky to be in a car.
As you said, double check legislation before driving abroad, (as we are in September).
Please provide the information you have and specific laws relating to Portugal.
Nothing on Visit Portugal website,(under driving section), Embassy, RAC,AA.
All just guess work from other posters on the web, with no definitive answers so far.
I have emailed the Embassy Tourist office too.
Mick - on a purely subjective level you may be right, but subjective views don’t necessarily stand up to much scrutiny . Let me explain - if my home had been burgled and my most precious possessions stolen or ruined I’d back a call to make my estate a gated community with 24/7 security .But take kneejerk emotion out of it and I will argue very strongly against gated ‘communities’ .Or suppose my child had been fatally injured by a negligent driver doing 50 mph in the 30 limit outside , I’d demand a 20 limit (which might be reasonable ) and life imprisonment for the driver(which wouldn’t be reasonable ) .
As a judge said (in a case I sadly can no longer remember)-, ‘Grieving mothers do not make good legislators’ - and I agree that personal emotion has little place in arriving at law or policy which must balance societal freedom with individual rights and wishes
I do not like dashcams or CCTV . They are open to abuse and calls for (even ) wider use are often founded in groundless paranoia and insecurity. Overall, crime rates are low in this country . A driver is less likely to be hurt or die in a car crash than ever before , with rates lower than 50 years ago . Yes , cars are safer(if not pedestrians and cyclists ) but there are far more cars on the road .
“Ah, but what about driving standards” , some will say , before launching into a diatribe about how the roads are full of terrible drivers like never before. But here’s the thing - I have driven since 1971 and read the motoring press since 1967 and ever since then I have heard , year on year , older and more experienced drivers complaining about how driving standards have got so much worse since they started driving . But I don’t think they have at all- the real change is in the driver him or herself .
Thanks for that and saw it before.
But I am just trying to find the correct legislation and laws that relate to it.
As no one or organisation actually quotes exactly the law/offence.
Have emailed geral@cnpd.pt (Something to do with national security/protection of data) as the Embassy and Visit Portugal referred me to them, but nothing back. See what develops.
Edit- just emailed RAC for clarification etc.
