When a ten-ton flaming meteor blazed across the sky above Russia’s Southern Ural Mountains, there was no shortage of video immediately hitting the Internet in the following moments.  What gives?  Why was this previous top-secret region every bit as connected as Silicon Valley?

Mobile phone cameras are only part of the answer. Practically every driver in Russia has a dashboard camera, because there are a lot of traffic crashes in Russia (check out this compilation of really, really bad drivers), not to mention official corruption that could make a regular old fender bender into a legal nightmare. 

Affordable tech prices and looser rules for consumer use made it all possible.  If you can’t get enough of head-on car crashes and other gruesome videos, check out this website with an ongoing feed of the worst of Russia.