Why a dashboard camera makes your Christmas drive home safer

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! For most of us there’s only a few more weeks left of the working year, which means plenty of people are starting to plan their journeys up and down the country to see family. If you’re one of the ones who has to travel long distances to see their family, you’ll already know that the drive down can a perfect storm of a number of undesirable driving factors. 

Happily, that’s exactly where dashboard cameras can come in handy. Here, we’ve summed up some of the biggest reasons why the Christmas drive can be quite so problematic, and how the dashboard cameras can help provide peace of mind. 

The roads are exceptionally busy

Miles-long traffic jams aren’t unheard of during the Christmas period, especially on Christmas Eve. If you’re setting out on a journey that numbers into the triple digits, you can be sure you’ll be joining thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of people doing the same. 

Those doing the very longest journeys will probably find that the heavy traffic eventually thins as it gets later and later into the night, but rush hour in the last few days of December can be especially hectic. That means less elbow room when out on the roads, and greater chances of a collision. All the normal advantages of dashcams still apply here - they can help to conclusively prove who was at fault, and protect you against potentially expensive insurance claims.

Seasonal driving behaviour

While you’ll most likely always experience some level of dangerous behaviour out on the roads, it can get arguably worse over Christmas. That’s not to say that everyone becomes aggressive, as such, but they can certainly become more frantic, more stressed, and therefore more likely to cause (or be involved in) a collision. There’s also the factor of where you’re driving - if you’re on a motorway for most of the journey, you may well see people driving more erratically, recklessly or dangerously than you might experience on normal residential roads. All it takes is for someone to misjudge changing lanes, or put on their indicator too late, and it could (safe to say) put a downer on your entire Christmas! 

Unfavourable driving conditions

Driving in winter can be stressful enough at the best of times. It’s dark and more often than not it’s raining, which are not ideal conditions for starting long drives. If you’re really unlucky, you might even have to deal with snow and ice - pleasant enough when you’re skating on it in specially-designed boots, but somewhat less whimsical when you’re zipping along it in a two-tonne vehicle with your foot pressed firmly on the brakes. A dashcam won’t prevent you from having a collision, but it can prove that you weren’t driving recklessly or carelessly in the lead up to it - and sometimes, that can make all the difference to whether or not you have to pay out on an eye-watering insurance claim.

We admit that when considered alone, dashcams might not be the most pulse-pounding present you’ll get yourself this Christmas. However, they could save you a lot of money further down the line - and with finances being what they normally are at this time of year, that could be a gift enough in itself! You can browse our own fantastic range of dashboard cameras right here on our site. Alternatively, if you need any help or advice, we’re only too happy to provide it - feel free to give us a call on 01254 694537, and we’ll see how we can help!