Home > Research Legal Advice > Car / Auto Accident > Is it possible to get any pictures from gas station cameras?
Asked over 1 year ago - Columbus, OH
FlagI met with an accident a month back. I was going straight and the car opposite to me taking a left turn. I entered the intersection in green and it turned orange and red before i leave, since it is 12 lane intersection that I'm crossing. The other car turned left and met with accident. It is at 8.30pm and she dont have her head lights turned on. But the witness are saying that it is my fault as i ran red light. Though it is big intersection it dont have street cameras. Is it possible to get any pictures from gas station cameras, since there are two of them on each side of road? is it legal to
The surveillance cameras and recordings are the private property of the gas station, so they can either voluntarily give you the relevant portion, or you have the right to subpoena it to a deposition, or get a court order requiring them to prevent its spoliation (destruction or erasure). Unfortunately, most such cameras operate on a continuous loop, meaning they repeatedly re-record over the previously recorded material after a period of time, commonly 48 - 72 hours, but some record for over a week or more. If nothing happens within that time frame to alert them of a crime, then they have no notice the recording is useful. If notified in time, the relevant portion can be copied and saved onto a more permanent media storage device. Typically, police responding to a crime scene will go for those recordings right away to assist them in proving their case. In your situation, you may have waited too long.
Don't speak legalese? We define thousands of terms in plain English.
Browse our legal dictionary
