Citizens of the post-Soviet East are crazy about dashcams because it helps them stay safe on dangerous, insurance fraud-filled roads. One Californian found his dashcam similarly useful.
Watch the video from Bad Drivers Of Southern California below and everything becomes pretty clear.
The uploader's full description gives a broader view of why it was so, so useful to have a dashcam running.
He started walking forward when I was about ~25 ft away. He was also walking sideways towards me even though it may not appear like it (it was much more obvious without the black boxes). As soon as he slammed himself on my car, he pretended to have hurt his ankle and rolled onto the ground as soon as he came off camera. When I got out of my car, I made sure not to mention my camera and basically cussed him out for about ten minutes until the police came.
There were five witnesses in total (including a driver just turning the corner behind me) and all said that I had hit the pedestrian. When the police came, I was pretty much the last person they interviewed (probably because I was all hot-headed and it looked like I was at fault). I showed them my footage straight from my camera, which at this point, the pedestrian already had lied if he had been hit. After they saw what was going on, they asked my if I would cooperate by providing them this footage so they can file charges, which I agreed to.
There was a very small dent on my hood and I didn't realize it was there until days later after this after seeing a slight imperfection on the reflection from the paint. They took down my information and I was free to go. I don't know what has happened to any of the witnesses and I'm sure they arrested the pedestrian. To this day, I received no follow-up.
If you suddenly have the urge to fix yourself up with some on-dash recording power, look no further than right here.