Stupid Driver Stories

[TobiasG]

^probably not sober

 

[prizrak]

Perhaps but I have seen people do that quite a bit and during times when sobriety is generally expected.

 

[Hbriz]

Yesterday I was behind someone in a Daewoo Leganza who drove for 15km, through intersections and everything, with their left indicator on after changing lanes. So they were both deaf and blind. They did buy a Daewoo after all.

 

[SirEdward]

The did buy a Daewoo after all.

This.

Only, I'd say they did buy a Daewoo -Leganza-. Daewoo only is not enough, since today Daewoo is spelled Chevrolet and is getting a little better quality than in the past.

 

[ashspet]

I know I own a magic wand, but if I'm next to you and you put on an indicator, I'm not going to miraculously disappear to enable you to change lanes. The same laws of physics apply to me as to you. And I know sound travels slower than light, but the horn blast was the most effective warning available to me that you were about to put your passenger side front corner into my driver's side front wheel arch. No need to get pissy about it.

And driving down a really long and steep hill with a twisty road, with your brakes constantly on, will result in overheating and smoke. Yes, you are the one on fire, it's not me. And big, grey clouds wafting up from your vehicle and around your car should be a really good indicator that you need to stop. And when you finally do stop, getting out and pouring really cold water over your brakes is a VERY bad idea. This is why you are now waiting for a tow truck.

 

[katwalk]

Daewoo makes me lol because they are LITERALLY appliances not just in jest. I saw a daewoo rice steamer just last week at the store, the previous last thing I saw by them was a VCR. :lol:

 

[warren]

I was on the I-94 over the Christmas holiday, doing "some" miles per hour in the left lane. A VW Bettle cabrio being driven by a short, unattractive woman screams up behind me as I'm passing someone, so I figure, okay, I'll let her past and distract the state troopers that are out looking for speed demons & drunkards. After I pass the car on the right, I signal my intent to switch to the right lane so that she could pass. What did she do? -After- I turned on my signal and it had blinked twice, she floored it, changed lanes, barely missing the car in the right-hand lane, and comes along beside me.... just as I'm doing my signalled lane merge. I mean, I'm fully a foot into the lane as she pulls up beside me.

Realizing that we're inches away from a BIG accident, I get the car back into the left lane, blaring my horn. The woman keeps looking straight ahead, either completely oblivious to what she'd done, or unwilling to acknowledge her mistake. She speeds off ahead of me.

And then the car in the right-hand lane... a bad-ass Charger, speeds off after her and starts tailgating her.... I'm thinking, okay, the guy's taking her plates down.

A couple miles down the road, I've caught up to her because the Charger had by then gotten in front of her and was stopping her from going 100mph. I'm coming up behind her, and suddenly she brakes HARD... like from 85mph to 50mph, for NO REASON AT ALL. The Charger hadn't brake-checked her or changed its speed.... it was like she wanted me to rear-end her.

Unbelievable.

 

[Hbriz]

And driving down a really long and steep hill with a twisty road, with your brakes constantly on, will result in overheating and smoke. Yes, you are the one on fire, it's not me. And big, grey clouds wafting up from your vehicle and around your car should be a really good indicator that you need to stop. And when you finally do stop, getting out and pouring really cold water over your brakes is a VERY bad idea. This is why you are now waiting for a tow truck.

This happens so often around where I live, theres a motorway that goes down relatively steeply for 4km or so down a mountain, and you constantly see people, usually in white Toyota Corollas, sitting on their brakes and obviously not gearing down at all. It really pisses me off.

One of the more amusing ones I've experienced, a guy in a ute that clipped and knocked over the keep left sign on a median strip. Thats irony.

 

[Interrobang]

I almost got myself into a ditch on Sunday. Turning off the Autobahn the same exit I use almost everyday I just wasn?t concentrating and didn?t turn the wheel enough (yes, a real "stupid driver story" with me as the stoopid). I was looking at my fuel gauge and thinking about when to fill up, If it would be cheaper on monday or doing it that day ... and stuff like that. I realized that I was going to end up in the ditch just in time, but it was only few centimers that kept me on the road when doing about 60km/h in what is basically a corner. All because I felt too safe on a road I know very, very well and didn?t concentrate enough.

 

[JohnnyEnglish]

I almost got myself into a ditch on Sunday. Turning off the Autobahn the same exit I use almost everyday I just wasn?t concentrating and didn?t turn the wheel enough (yes, a real "stupid driver story" with me as the stoopid). I was looking at my fuel gauge and thinking about when to fill up, If it would be cheaper on monday or doing it that day ... and stuff like that. I realized that I was going to end up in the ditch just in time, but it was only few centimers that kept me on the road when doing about 60km/h in what is basically a corner. All because I felt too safe on a road I know very, very well and didn?t concentrate enough.

It's easy to get distracted, i once had a car accident thinking what's for dinner.

 

[bone]

i once had a head on collision with a lorry.

i saw him comming, made eye contact with the driver, and was expecthing him to move over, which he didn't, so i didn't either

and we hit head on

he had to pay for the damage

 

[prizrak]

It's easy to get distracted, i once had a car accident thinking what's for dinner.

I ran into a plastic divider when my headlight went out and the car helpfully gave me a 2 line message about that on my malfunction display.

 

[Zesty]

Just a few of the many stupid little incidents I witnessed on a recent road trip. Categorised for convenience.

Tailgating

The normal hwy speed limit in Australia is 100km/h, now I know that seems slow to some people, but on a steep narrow, twisting two-lane road in an (admittedly baddass) thunderstorm with pouring rain and low vis, there is surely nothing wrong with me slowing down a little to drive to the conditions, and even take some of the corners at the 'recommended' lower speeds as the little yellow signs say. Surely there is nothing wrong with even, god forbid, actually obeying the 100 km/h speed limit. Filling my back window with a your Pajero's grill isn't going to make me go any faster. The fact that you were actually towing a reasonably-sized boat at the time makes me wonder how you haven't manage to completely toppled over or end up plunging down a hillside while taking this road before!

People who clearly shouldn't be on the roads

Old people driving 20 km/h below the speed limit in perfect conditions and making decisions to turn off the hwy at the last possible moment. People unable to maintain a constant speed forcing me to slow down constantly to maintain a safe distance = one bloody tired driver once at my destination.

The amount of people out on the roads who were clearly drunk / drugged / something else was pretty depressing. I guess it's a given for this kind of year. This includes you in the clapped-out Camry wagon driving the whole way with your high beams on despite oncoming motorists flashing their lights at you and wandering all over your lane, twice putting both left wheels completely off the road.

Running red lights

One seen when I was almost home on Sunday night. Red means stop dumbass, I don't think you even noticed just how close you came to cleaning up those two girls. One of them was so scared she was crying FFS. I went to see if they were alright and so did a woman who was parking her car nearby, thanks to whoever you were in the green Falcon for helping out!

Not paying attention

Nice job idiot in the small truck thing for not seeing me and pulling out of a side street right in front of me. However, thankyou to whoever invented ABS brakes (it was raining, and I'm pretty sure without them I would've slid under the back of him). When I overtook him where was an appropriate lane soon after I saw that he was he was on his phone.

I don't think I'll be as keen to do a Christmas road-trip next year. :?

 

[SirEdward]

Running red lights

One seen when I was almost home on Sunday night. Red means stop dumbass, I don't think you even noticed just how close you came to cleaning up those two girls. One of them was so scared she was crying FFS. I went to see if they were alright and so did a woman who was parking her car nearby, thanks to whoever you were in the green Falcon for helping out!

I hate them. Deeply. Totally. Unconditionally. So much that I'd want to see red-lights-cameras enforced on EVERY light even if those things do annoy me greatly.

 

[prizrak]

I hate them. Deeply. Totally. Unconditionally. So much that I'd want to see red-lights-cameras enforced on EVERY light even if those things do annoy me greatly.

It's true there is rarely a good reason to run a red light. I did it a couple of times in my life both times because I wasn't paying attention.

 

[flydiscovery]

The phone thing REALLY makes me angry too. I really hate supporting the whole nanny state thing, but they really need to be banned in cars period, even hands free. Actually, they don't need to be banned so much as people need to grow a pair and realize they shouldn't talk on the phone and simply NOT ANSWER. That would fix the problem. Almost all the near miss traffic incidents I've had in the last few years have been due to someone else on the phone.

 

[killpanda]

Hands free is fine, it's like talking to a mate in the passenger seat, you can manage it in most conditions. Holding the phone, on the other hand, is what's bloody dangerous, you can't possibly concentrate on the road while doing it.

 

[flydiscovery]

No it really isn't and that's been proven. The difference is the person you're speaking to on a hands free set has no awareness of YOUR physical surroundings. The person in the passenger seat does.

 

[DanRoM]

Holding the phone, on the other hand, is what's bloody dangerous, you can't possibly concentrate on the road while doing it.

That's because you have to concentrate on seeing police and drop the phone before they see you.
Without that, your physical capability to steer the car is no worse than with any other reason for one-handed driving, like holding a drink or a cigarette, or changing a CD. The talking to someone on the phone reduces your mental capability, though. But it does that with a hands-free kit, too. As flydiscovery said, your own passenger (hopefully) knows when to shut up because of traffic, a person on the phone doesn't AND is more difficult to understand in most cases.
The extend to which using the phone while driving reduces driving capability is more dependent on the driver's general abilities than on whether a hands-free kit is used.

 

[killpanda]

Yeah it is true that even with a hands free kit you won't be as focused on the road, but it's still a bit better than having to hold the phone in your hands. I try to stop whenever I can to answer the phone but sometimes you're on a good straight piece of road and you can manage to put the hands free stuff and be quite safe while talking for a few minutes

First and only time I tried to talk with the phone in my hand, I nearly crashed after 30 seconds