My kid’s just finished the classroom part of driver education and it prompted a discussion of crazy things we’ve seen other drivers do.
The craziest thing I saw, many years ago now, was I came up behind a guy driving a Ford Ranger pickup and could see through his rear window that he was doing tricep extensions with a dumbbell in his right hand. I was more surprised as I passed to see he was shaving with an electric razor in his left hand. I don’t really know how he was steering.
Kiddo said they were told personal grooming was the fourth leading cause of accidents.
Had a guy pass me on the right going 20+ over the limit while taking a bong hit.
One of my friends(absolute stoner who smokes every day) went 70kmh over the speed limit(170kmh) while smoking a joint.
Dutch? I’m guessing because the speed limit. That’s insane though, 170 is flat out in most cars.
German. We drove on a random street between cities where you’re allowed to drive 100 kmh
Oh right you drive 100 there, forgot about that. That makes it even more insane!
I’m Canadian. Done 220 while ripping a bong. Up north highways late at night
That was me sorry was in a hurry
About 3 months ago on my way home picking up burgers for my bro and i. On a major route and this sketch pedo van (early 90s white ford econoline rusted out and ratty as hell) busts out of a side street, almost hitting one person, slams on their brakes, slides over 2 lanes into oncoming traffic passes me and 2 other people before cutting someone off as an oncoming car almost hit them head on, the. Makes a left hand turn on a red light at the next intersection.
This could have been in a movie except somehow no accidents happened in my view. Fucking crazy.
Besides that a few years ago at 3 lane traffic circle on one side of an overpass to our largest highway(settle down, its only 3 lanes each way!)hear someone absolutely gunning it over the overpass. Comes into view, brand new metallic blue BMW M3 goes the wrong way into the traffic circle (everyone stopped because we all heard it coming) loses control, spins like 480° almost hits the retaining wall in the middle of the circle then proceeds to gun it back over the overpass they came from.
I blame drugs
A couple of county highways near me got roundabouts put in on bad stopsign intersections where people would speed excessively. The number of single vehicle accidents after they were initially put in because people sped excessively and or drove drunk was kinda hilarious
Since then it’s made turning at both intersections way nicer and the traffic calming effect has worked
Watch Lord of the Rings on a phone mounted on the steering wheel. I called the police immediately.
Shockingly, watching videos while driving is not illegal in many US states (some it’s ambiguous, others there’s simply no law that actually bans it)
Strange. In the Netherlands you get a big fine even for talking on the phone without any screen interaction. Just holding it to your ear is already forbidden.
As you should. That movie deserves a bigger screen and decent sound setup. Watching it on a phone is criminal.
Pittsburgh has some of the worst drivers I’ve ever seen. Running red lights and waiting for yield signs to turn green is the norm there. I’ve seen at least 5 accidents caused by a Pittsburgher stopping at the end of an entrance ramp to a highway.
Unfortunately my car was finally sent to the body shop after 7 years dodging people, and 3 months from leaving the city by a lady who decided to make a left turn from the right lane. Luckily I always have a dashcam running, no one was hurt and the police wrote her a ticket. This lady was a high level Karen, and went ballistic when I asked if she was ok after she crashed into me. Best part was when her husband showed up 10mins later and apologized to me for his, “dumbass wife” who just knocked the mirrors off his truck.
I was rear ended while waiting to make a left turn on a rural highway. We got out and look at the car behind us. The windshield is completely splattered in red. It was two guys eating chips and a bowl of salsa.
Just last week, a car had missed their turn on the motorway, so decided to REVERSE up the hard shoulder.
I see this shit far too often. It makes me wonder if they’re aware their gps can get them rerouted without having to risk their or anyone else’s necks.
Reminds me of a saying I heard: “Good drivers sometimes miss their turn. Bad drivers never miss their turn.”
I can’t agree more. I always say if you miss a turn or get in the wrong lane then “own your mistake and go around”
Too many times I see someone got in the wrong lane so they turn on their signal and wait or just plow over to the lane they wanted and cut others off. Nobody understands the solid white line. If it’s sold white you can’t cross it!
On Sunday there was a crash blocking an Autobahn. 50 cars turned around and drove back to the nearest exit, on the emergency lane kept free for the ambulance.
I’ve seen elderly folks do that a few times. Not on the shoulder, but still in their lane, backing up into oncoming traffic. (Yes, I did spend some time living in Florida.)
I was with my uncle (ca 1990) when he confidently took an offramp and got onto the I5 freeway going the wrong direction in an RV.
Bad enough with the wrong way, but in an RV is so much worse!
Late '70s, on a winding paved backroad heading into town, a smaller car coming in the opposite direction lost traction (a light, misty rain had just gone through) and rolled twice in a field before landing upright.
My buddy and I quickly pulled over and ran towards the car to make sure everything was alright.
They drove off before we got to them…
Ok…I want THAT car!!! Forget airbags, and modern safety standards. This dude rolls his car TWICE and just drives off.
Ya, iirc, it was something like a Datsun or Toyota compact car, which were a lot smaller and fragile than today’s compacts.
This is one of those events that you chalk up to pure luck.
…until you get in a collision and the car crumples up and squeezes you out like red toothpaste.
Cars like that don’t crumple up, you just bounce around inside till you die
I was on a highway doing around 60 when the car in front of me suddenly spun around in a 360 and stopped. Luckily they were some distance in front and there was no other traffic. When I passed, it was a teenage boy in the passenger and his grandmother driving. She was yelling at him and reaching down between them trying to do something. I think he had pulled the e-brake just to see what would happen.
Dude let the intrusive thoughts win.
While stopped at a red light, a taxi casually got onto the right sidewalk and drove on it to get to the front of the line.
I’d give an A for dedication to customers I guess.
Next we’ll be learning taxis are amphibious.
Driving super drunk. Like, super drunk. I saw the guy getting pulled over and the officer helping him out of the car. The guy literally just folded down to the ground and passed out. I have no idea how he was moving the steering wheel and stepping on gas and brake because he seemed to have no control over his limbs.
Here in Japan, I saw a dude pulled over by a cop. Of course, I didn’t see him driving, but the dude was absolutely legless. Like had problems standing. That was the one and only time I ever seen Japanese cops actually doing their job.
Reminds me of a story from college when some friends were high out of their minds on various things. They got pulled over for speeding by a cop who appeared to be running beside their car. Turns out they were only going a few MPH and the cop stopped them for driving way too slow. They got arrested for DWI, obviously. No idea if it was true or not, but still a funny story.
Tommy Boy?
When I lived in Thailand, I lived next to an apartment building where quite a few bargirls and trans women who worked im the red light area lived.
Regularly you could watch them come home in the early morning hours, driving up with their motorbikes without any issues but then having major diffficulty walking the few meters to the door. Sometimes they didn’t even manage to get off the bike properly and just fell off it. But you would have never guessed from their driving.
I know a guy who got pulled over drunk as fuck, and told the cop “you don’t want any trouble officer, get back in your car and drive away”. The cop told him to get out of the car, so he opened the door, forgot to unbuckle, and did a faceplant on the asphalt with his ass still in the car seat. Then he told the cop to drive away again. Needless to say, he got a DUI.
Locally it’s not uncommon to find a vehicle abandoned on a Saturday or Sunday morning after being involved in a single-vehicle accident, usually because the driver was drunk and snuck off to sober up before collecting their vehicle and figuring out their consequences. Drinking culture and driving culture are a very deadly combination of course
What’s this from? Zelda CD-i?
I think so
This is a bit different, but I took a taxi once where the driver was ranting how slow other drivers around him were reacting to traffic saying they weren’t paying attention…while he was fiddling with his phone and texting someone.
I had the same thing happen in Greece. He then proceeded to not see the light turn green and continued to rant while it was green and we weren’t moving.
Me and a few other drivers were parked by an unmanned gas station (late night near airport pickup that charged per minute from entry) - anyway, an early '00s renault hatchback swings into the station, pulling a U-turn before three unmarked police vehicles with sirens on surround it.
Officers step out and walk over, having a chat with the driver for a bit. Then, the driver steps out and the other passengers start to come out, one after another. After a little bit, there are twelve adults have exited this little hatchback along with a bunch of luggage. Driver is arrested shortly after.
Never seen anything like it before or after.
I saw someone who mantained the legal speed limit and safe following distance.
I remember commenting about people going over the speed limit here on Lemmy, and getting so many downvotes from people who could never explain to me why they thought they deserved to go over the speed limit. Emergencies, with your emergency lights on? By all means! Going over the speed limit because you got up or left late for work? No bueno.
To be fair, most speed limits aren’t very accurate to the design of the street. If you wanted, you could speed up for straightaways and slow down for turns. Obviously though, they aren’t going to put a speed limit sign every 5 feet, so it won’t match the street design everywhere.
Case in point the freeways where I live are limited to 65MPH but you cross the border into either neighboring state and magically 70-75MPH is the safe limit. It makes no sense apart from generating revenue from speeding tickets. Most commuters do 75-80MPH depending on traffic.
The low speed limit also has the side effect of causing those slow, oblivious drivers to immediately crank the wheel over into the left lane the second they merge on the highway and then set their cruise control to 62MPH while they get passed by every car around them causing massive congestion behind them and lots of lane changes.
While I understand both of your points and views, the fact of the matter is that the speed limit is set to whatever it is, whether it be 65 or 70. You are aware of this, and daily commuters are also aware of this. In my eyes, that means it is not a surprise, or shouldn’t be, to anyone except travelers. This also means that you should be prepared for that commute at that speed limit. Unless it is an emergency, just follow the speed limit. It’s as simple as that.
In Attack of the Clones, Kenobi probably broke a handful of driving laws.
This has gotta be made up!!!
I hate when I leave an actual stopping distance between me and the person in front of me and someone else just decides to dart in and then tailgate the person in front of them.
I saw someone who used their turn signals.
Everyone knows that you save on car battery lifespan and look 134% cooler without turn signals
Besides the orange light doesn’t fit the paintwork and whole aesthetic and you turn too fast and too often anyway
Downtownish Winnipeg road, three or four lanes in each direction: buddy pulls a hard left turn without signalling, from the rightmost lane, across all the lanes of traffic.
I brought it up on the bar later and the local guy was like “Yeah that’s called a Winnipeg Swing”
