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.
Flip a car while streetracing on a narrow three-lane highway in the middle of the city, in moderate traffic that was moving 70 km/h ish at most. Amazingly they didn’t take anyone else out.
I called 911. They redirected the call to the police station. After I described the incident, I could feel the officer’s eyeroll through the phone. It was odd to realize that something so extreme for me was literally just another day for them.
Edited to add:
personal grooming was the fourth leading cause of accidents.
An old co-worker liked telling the story of how he was rear-ended on a very busy city highway. The other driver was a young woman who stepped out the car all distraught and said “I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you, I was putting on my makeup!” My coworker was ready to wave off the incident because there was basically no damage to any car but he changed his mind as soon as he heard that.
He must have been training for the Over The Top arm wrestling competition.
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.
Of course I’ve seen people shaving, reading a book, playing flute, playing violin, but the best is a woman who looked like Jocelyn Wildenstein in a top $$$ Mercedes drinking a Corona beer from the bottle, I’m pretty sure it was her.
Saw a dude driving down the wrong side of the free way once.
I’ve been known to have “British moments”. When I saw the bit in Arrested Development, I cried laughing.
"Bloody yank!”
I had to pull off the road a bit and almost into the ditch on the highway to avoid someone who misjudged his passing distance and was still using my lane.
I signaled in the hopes he would see it and not zig to my zag.
He passed right in with the car he was passing, I edged the ditch a bit and then we all continue on our way.
I was a ways down the road before the chemical dump and realization. Had to pull over, of course.
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!
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That was me sorry was in a hurry
There was a guy I used to see in traffic who used to play trumpet as he drove. It’s been more than 20 years since I saw him and I still think about it from time to time.
The 2 most ridiculous ones I’ve seen are
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Reading a newspaper with a flashlight in his mouth
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Eating a gallon of ice cream
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Was back when I was 19 or 20, was hanging out with my buddies from home over the summer while on break
We were at a McDonald’s at 1:30 or 2 am. Kid around our age comes screeching into the McDonald’s parking lot, going over curbs and everything, sparks flying from two wheels. He had punctured both his front tires and was riding on rims. Turns out one of my friends knew him - he takes a look, looks at the guy, goes “yo man, you probably don’t wanna drive on those”
Kid goes “yeah well I really want McDonald’s I’m gonna go home after”
My friend goes “you live about 15 min away, you really shouldn’t drive.”
He gets his shit and starts driving, sparks still going off. Were a little concerned so we follow him. 200 feet later he gets pulled over, so we pull over behind the cop. The cop looks at us and goes “do you guys know this idiot?”
My buddy’s like yeah…
Cop says you should get him in your car.
Kid refuses. Drives 8 miles home in rims. Smoke everywhere, most awful sound you’ve ever heard. We follow him home, I find out he’s dumb rich.
We go into his guest house, which was bigger than all of our actual houses, smoke one, then leave.
The cop just let him go? I have a hard time believing that especially if you guys were right there in another car.
Bro wtf? Even if I’m rich AF I don’t want to wake up the whole fucking neighbourhood and doing such damage to my car.
We were all 19 or so and he was an idiot idk lol
I didn’t really hang out with him or know him before or after that night
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
My dad. He drove the wrong way on a highway, fell asleep at the wheel, and unknowingly ran from the cops.
To this day, my dad doesn’t believe me that he’s ran from the cops twice.
Since none of you know my dad, imagine if Mr Rodgers were cranky, racist, and stubborn.
What was the other time he ran from the cops?
During morning rush hour (a near-standstill occasionally broken by brief periods of 10mph movement), I once saw a woman eating a bowl of soup/oatmeal/whatever while steering with her elbows.
It seemed to be a regional norm to eat breakfast in the car because a 20 mile commute generally took 1.5-3 hours and often moved slower than a walking pace, but that was the only time I’d ever seen someone eating food that required a dish and utensil.
Sounds like the kind of commute where an ebike would be life changing in time savings
This was my experience going down the GW Parkway. People frequently had the morning Post unfolded all the way reading it, and others applying eyeliner and mascara.
I watched a guy eat a meal while driving a van.
In itself that’s not crazy, but it is when you’re holding a knife and fork, and you’ve got a plate of…something on your car dashboard.
Similar, here.
Stopped at lights on drive into work next to a woman at the wheel, spooning down her breakfast from a bowl.
Someone, I told at work asked if you could get into trouble for this…maybe not the first time, but, yes, if you’re a cereal offender.
I’d like to picture him with an oversized napkin stuffed into his collar as well.
There was a vehicle I’d see on my daily commute for awhile. It would run every red light on one of the larger streets in my city, but the driver would slow down to make sure no one was coming.
The unfortunate thing was that due to the timing, I could easily and legally follow about 3-4 seconds behind the vehicle as the green lights are timed and the driver just happened to be a bit ahead of the cycle. I witnessed them more than a few times.
but the driver would slow down to make sure no one was coming.
Sounds like pretty safe driving to me.
Comparatively yeah. It just sticks with me because apparently those 3-4 seconds made all the difference.
It was a welcome addition to the conversation (just in case you took my previous comment negatively).
No negativity taken. I’m sure I’ve seen worse regularly… Too regularly. To the point that I don’t bother committing it to memory at this point. People driving on the median or opposing traffic as a shortcut? Daily. People holding up an intersection to show off their sick burnout skills? A couple times a year.
Most of what I’ve read in here though? I haven’t seen anyone so absorbed in not driving while driving.
Tailgating is the most dangerous thing I’ve seen.
Once I saw 5 cars travelling at 80+ mph each with barely a few feet between them
Safe-ish, until some other driver on the crossing road approaches way faster than estimated, sees the light go yellow and floors it. Sure, they might see it in time, but there’s a risk they don’t. My dad once didn’t see a crossing car at a yield intersection despite looking that way and got T-boned. He didn’t think he was doing anything unsafe either.
Still safer than just blazing through though, so I guess partial credit for being carefully impatient?
I’ve seen a lot of bad things. But one that has always stuck with me was a guy studying.
I’m not talking about glancing down at a book. He had a textbook propped up on his steering wheel and was using a highlighter to mark in the book.
