I just took a quick drive to Tesco to get a sandwich. On the way I stopped
at a pelican crossing to let a couple cross the road. I think I had been
stationary for about five seconds, the couple were right in the middle of
the crossing when a car came the other way and didn't stop. Fortunately the
couple saw the car coming and stopped just before entering it's path. The
car was a new Mondeo, driver was a smartly dressed woman probably in her
early thirties. I couldn't believe what I saw as she passed, she appeared
to be sending a text message!
I didn't manage to get the registration number unfortunately.

I do drive quite a lot of miles (about 20k a year), there have been many
times when I wished my car had been fitted with a video camera like the
VASCAR system police vehicles use. I have seen dangerous driving (loads of
times), accidents (also quite a few), fights, crimes (nearly caught the guy
too, but he was on a bike and I was in a 2.5 ton 4x4) and probably plenty of
other stuff that I didn't realise was significant.

I think it would be useful if more vehicles did have cameras fitted. Just
think how useful it would be if every police car, bus, taxi and council
owned vehicle was fitted with a camera system to automatically record and
store images.
Besides being useful in accident investigation, it would also be a useful
tool when searching for missing persons. If the last sighting was outside
the train station, review the recording from the number 37 and 43 buses.

I might design a system and try it out in my own car.