Craziest Things Caught on Dash Cams

 Sure, dash cams pose significant benefits to those who use them, but they’re also fun. One of the reasons why you might get a dashcam is record vacations and scenic drives, which means they’re useful for more than just accidents, determining who is at fault, or protecting you against break-ins.

 However, on occasion, dash cams have caught some amazing situations that we could never have expected. Things happen so quickly that we often don’t know what we saw until we play it back in our head hours later. With a dashcam, you can play the video back and stare in disbelief at the events of the day.

 If you’re interested in people watching or capturing things you may never catch otherwise, getting a dashcam and keeping it on all the time may afford you some fun adventures and is the perfect experiment.

 Here are some of the craziest things ever caught on a dashcam. We’re not saying this would ever happen to you, but without a dashcam, you’re almost guaranteed to miss it if it does.

 The Fort McMurray Wildfire

 It’s not very often you see blue flames or catch something going up in flames at all. There is dashcam video footage of the Fort McMurray wildfire in Alberta, Canada, and you can clearly see blazing hot evidence of the 1.45 million acres of fire that engulfed the area. The 91-degree temps and $9.9 billion in damage included residential areas, oil sands, and the Boreal forest. It’s sad, but it’s all on camera.

 Meteorites

 You’ll see a meteorite even less often than you’ll see a huge fire. We don’t have the statistics or anything, we’re just saying it’s pretty uncommon. However, there are several dash cams that captured the Chelyabinsk meteorite in Russia in 2013. While large meteorites are typically detected far in advance by a variety of space agencies, the origin of this one was so close to the sun that they didn’t see it until it entered the earth’s atmosphere.

 Fortunately, it was captured by dash cams before it burst in the air because had it made contact with the ground at 40,000 miles per hour, it would have released more energy than the bomb on Hiroshima.

 Tianjin Explosions

 Shortly before midnight, in August of 2015, there was an explosion in Tianjin, China. Nitrocellulose molecules decided to auto-ignite, causing a huge flash of energy. Shock waves and light exploded into the night sky, and it was all caught on dashcam.

 The flammable substance created a huge fireball and two separate explosions. It caused hundreds of injuries and deaths and was a huge tragedy that the Chinese government attempted to cover up.

 Tank Combustions

 This one has a happier ending than the last. This hazmat truck carrying flammable gas ran into the vehicle in front of him, causing the cylinders to explode. First, they fell to the ground, a few tanks exploded, and then the rest were ignited by those in what looks to be a very explosive game of dominos. Don’t worry, the driver is fine. No one was hurt. In fact, if it weren’t so frightening, the flames dancing across the highway would have been kind of pretty.

 Calm in the Face of the Storm

 Sometimes, your dashcam is recording you. It can be kind of humorous to watch yourself experience what’s going on out on the open road, and in this case, she was as calm as ever. We can’t imagine being this calm after our car rolls over several times, but that’s probably a good reaction to have.

 Planes on Bridges

 Luckily, you don’t see this too often. When this plane at Taipei Songshan Airport in Taiwan started going down, the pilot then shut down the other working engine by accident, causing the plane to clip its wing in a taxi, then the bridge. It tumbled into the river below, costing the lives of many passengers. And the dashcam caught it all. Don’t watch this one if you think you might find it disturbing. It’s really quite sad.

 There are countless other dashcam videos of cops versus criminals, car accidents, train wrecks, and mechanics taking cars on joy rides when they think the dashcam is turned off. In many cases, your dashcam is protecting you from the worst, but you may also capture some footage you may or may not have wanted to see. Some will make you laugh, and some will make you cry, but there’s no doubt about it. Dash cams are anything but boring.