The meteor that exploded over Russia and injured nearly 1000 people on Friday morning was astonishingly well-documented by amateur videographers, and many of the videos seem to have been captured from the dashboards of cars.

All of the available footage raises the question, why do so many Russians have dashboard video cameras? Answer: to prove who was at fault in car accidents.

Basically, Russia's motorists are a different breed. Russia has one of the highest car-accident rates in the world, a fact that Dmitry Medvedev, the former president and current prime minister, once blamed on the ''undisciplined, criminally careless behaviour of our drivers,'' as well as poor road conditions.

Hit-and-run crashes are incredibly common, as apparently are crafty, car-related hustles. Drivers of already dented cars will back purposefully into other cars in an attempt to extort money from their owners. Pedestrians will throw themselves on car hoods at crossings and then lie on the asphalt, pretending to be injured.