Crash victims left without video as cyberattack expected to shut KC Scout cameras
GRANDVIEW, Mo. — Kansas City continues to be impacted by the effects of a cyber attack.
While most systems are back online in the city of Kansas City and Jackson County, the system of cameras monitoring Metro highways could be down for months.
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The Missouri State Highway Patrol calls the hundreds of cameras maintained by KC Scout a luxury only available in the metropolitan area. The agency says its investigations are going on as normal without the video conducted by crash investigators on a daily basis. According to MSHP, it usually only requests KC Scout camera video recorded by SafetyVid in serious crashes with the potential for criminal charges.
That footage is a luxury one Kansas City visitor says she’d love to have for insurance purposes. Leia Sanders was visiting Kansas City for her birthday May 10, driving on Highway 71 and Interstate 49 in Grandview a little after 8:30 p.m.
As she approached the Main Street exit, she saw something unexpected heading right toward her.
“I had no time to do anything, there were cars on both sides of me. I just sat there and was like okay, this has to happen,” Sanders explained.
A tire bounced underneath a semi and then lodged underneath her Toyota Corolla, bringing it to an immediate smoky stop. The frame of the car snapped in half along with the bumper transmission pan and oil pan.
“After I figured out what was wrong with my car, I called the police department to ask about any cameras that would be on the interstate. They told me that the KC Scout cameras are down right now and there was no way that we could figure out where the tire had come from or anything like that,” Sanders said.
There is a camera right at that exit and hundreds more around the city. But they’ve been down since the April 25 cyberattack on the KC Scout System. KC Scout says that outage is expected to last for months.
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“The Missouri and Kansas Departments of Transportation understand this is frustrating to partners and the traveling public. Work on service restoration is underway. It is too early to provide an estimate, but it is expected to be months before restoration can be anticipated,” a May 2 update on KC Scout’s social media pages said.
“Why have they been down for that long when lots of stuff goes on all the time and all of the money is coming out of my pocket and from my insurance company? So its frustrating,” Sanders said.
Sanders has been told once mechanics are able to test damage to the engine and transmission, her car may have to be totaled. While she may never know where the tire came from that caused all that damage, she’s just happy to know where it didn’t land.
“I think we were super lucky because if it wouldn’t have bounced under the semi it could have bounced up into my glass. It could have killed me and my family,” Sanders said.
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The highway cameras are also useful for employees monitoring them to be able to dispatch motorist assist units to crash victims. With the cameras being down, Sanders said that never happened in her case, even though they called 911.
In Kansas, you can call *47 if you are in a disabled vehicle on the side of the highway. In Missouri, you can dial *55.
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