Dashboard camera can be used as evidence to sue highways

PETALING JAYA: The next time you are trapped in a massive congestion while travelling on a highway, recording from your dashboard camera might compensate you for the loss of time.
According to a legal practitioner, Nizam Bashir, highway users can bring up their grouses to the court in the event of them being caught in an extraordinary gridlock.
Nizam said in this case, the highway operators, or any other respective party including the Malaysian Highway Authority, could be held liable in a suit initiated by highway motorists.
“Whether a motorist can file a suit for this or otherwise, the answer to that question is in the affirmative.
“Video from dashboard cameras, oral or documentary evidence are all acceptable (as evidence in a court trial),” he told theSun.
Nizam said this is not the first time where people had asked the question on whether highway operators could be sued for massive jams, adding that a similar issue was raised a few years back.
Although he was unsure whether such a case had ever been filed in Malaysia, Nizam highlighted parallel instances in other jurisdictions.
He said a class-action lawsuit was filed against the City of Montreal and the Province of Quebec, Canada, by motorists who were stranded on a highway during a massive blizzard early this year.
In another case in 2016, a passenger who missed a flight because of long lines at security checkpoints had sued the US’ Transportation Security Administration and Minneapolis – Saint Paul International Airport, Nizam added.
“There is no doubt that the facts are slightly different but the principle to the suit is relevant to the question at hand,” Nizam said.