Whats the worst exa...
 

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[Closed] Whats the worst example of driving you've ever seen?

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Not your standard run-of-the-mill ****-wittery, but really outstanding examples

I just turned onto the Princess Parkway to be confronted by a bloke in a Nissan Micra driving the wrong way down one of the busiest dual carriageways in the city. He seemed blissfully oblivious to the wild gesticulations of other drivers, and pootled merrily on his way

Whats more, the only way he could have got onto it was via a roundabout 😯


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 10:03 am
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I did manage to roll an Opel Manta so far off a road they had to use a crane to get it out 😳


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 10:04 am
 hora
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Jesus, which dual carriageway? Uptowards Hulme?


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 10:05 am
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my ex father-in-law, the most shockingly inept driver i've ever witnessed. no confidence, no ability, and no sense of direction either. when faced by a flyover he had to lie across the floor in the back while his wife drove the 3-400 yards up in the sky.


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 10:08 am
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Lady on her mobile phone, whilst trying to read a map, whilst driving through Dartford Tunnel.


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 10:09 am
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Two dickheads dueling with each other on the A24 a few years ago. Looked like one had gotten pi55ed off with being overtaken by the other, so they decided to steam along trying to virtually ram each other off the road. Really weird to watch, especially as there was a fair amount of morning traffic around too. Continued for about 2-3 miles.


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 10:14 am
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Maybe not the worst I've seen but most memorable was a guy driving through the middle of Birmingham while speaking on 2 mobiles, one in each hand.


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 10:16 am
 br
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Look I was lost, alright!


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 10:16 am
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I'm not saying who, but I've been in a car with someone who really thinks they are a good diver, but in reality has absolutely no skill at all.
They spend all their time either flat out on the gas, or hard on the brakes, and really is a danger, but just can't see it. Too close, too hard, too fast, no observation, no concentration, no smoothness. An utter mess.
I've been in their car a couple of times, once in heavy traffic, and I was absolutely scared witless. Never again, if I can possibly avoid it. I'd rather walk.


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 10:17 am
 hora
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I'm the sort of driver who is told 'you have less than 2,000 miles left on them pads sir'...but makes them last 10,000 min...

Binners will attest to my slow but smooth driving 😉


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 10:19 am
 Pook
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I'm scared of driving at the minute after Hora road raged me

😉


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 10:21 am
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On the M1 South just before Sheffield, someone so close to the van in front I genuinely thought the car was on a fixed tow bar (like the ones the AA use).

He wasn't. And he was using an electric shaver.

😯


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 10:22 am
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My mrs parked her cinqecento in the motorbike parking section in the parking on the Stratford on Avon gyratory...
She thought it was a very tight entrance! (that'll be because it's only for motorbikes) 🙂


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 10:23 am
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Hora drives like my Gran. FACT! Its like being in slow motion. I've physically aged (grown a beard, needed a haircut) on journeys with him. Its painful.

And yes Hora it was the end of the Parkway, by the Mancunian way roundabout. Unbelievable!


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 10:27 am
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Hora driving into a carpark with a height barrier, with a bike on the roofrack.

(didn't see it just heard about it 🙂 )


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 10:28 am
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Went to pull out on dual carriage way. Looked left, right again etc. Went to pull out then.... noticed 8O. Four or Five lorries about car etc.

For some reason I re looked and spotted (thank god)and witnessed a shocking bit of driving.

This picture best explains it..

I'm the black square pulling on the dual carriageway wanting to go right. The red line was the path of the honda civic coming from my left on the wrong side of the dual carriageway.

[img] [/img]

PS the driver was ID'd

PPS black oblongs are lorries.


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 10:28 am
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Nothing comes close to some of the things you see driving in and around Nairobi.

Buses, known locally as flying coffins, with the chassis so twisted that they appear to crab down the roads towards you.

Horrible - and don't even think of driving after dark, it's suicide!


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 10:29 am
 hora
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Hora driving into a carpark with a height barrier, with a bike on the roofrack.

Someones taken an axe to that rust/moss-covered barrier now and knocked it down. I'm not surprised.


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 10:30 am
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You should try driving in the Harrow area!

No joke, I've [u]twice[/u] had drivers stop on rondabouts to let me on.

Now, tell me where, in any manual, does it tell a driver already on a roundabout to let others onto ahead of them?

That's just the UK.
Cairo in a mini cab is always hillarious, as is Manilla in a Jeepney, the journey from Pokara to Kathmandu is worth pages of tales, Delhi and Calcutta are white knuckle rides, and that's in a local tut-tut (one of which turned over whilst I was in it). In point of fact, every Indian city I've ever visited is a free for all. Siagon on the back of a bike-taxi, with 2x riders with my mate on the back of the other bike, both trying to out do each other was something else!


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 10:31 am
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I do alot of miles and to be quite honest there are too many to choose from.
I do think standards are detriorating (sound like my dad!)and a specific example of this recently is peoples unwillingness to give way at roundabouts and junctions. People a lot more are simply pulling out or just joining roundabots etc not because they make a mistake but simply because they dont seem to want to give way.


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 10:32 am
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redthunder - all the words not necessarily in the right order. I think I get what happened though.


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 10:35 am
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Nothing comes close to some of the things you see driving in and around Nairobi.
Buses, known locally as flying coffins

We passed the remains of a crash in Zambia. Two tourist minibuses apparently crashed head on, exploded(!!), and everyone on board both was killed.

Our guide just said "It happens a lot. These are dangerous roads"

The road was quiet, flat and completely straight. 😯


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 10:36 am
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No joke, I've twice had drivers stop on rondabouts to let me on.

My old grandad used to do that. He felt it was the gentlemanly thing to do.

We asked him to stop driving shortly after we found out.


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 10:39 am
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On the way up to Scotland, the wife and I sat in a service station cafe and looked on in horrified silence as an old lady swept majestically onto the dual carriageway the wrong way 😯 No idea what the outcome was but we did hear sirens about 10 mins later....

In terms of day to day, consistently bad driving, I have a pal who occasionally comes riding with us and I flat refuse to get in a car with him. To his face. He drives literally two meters away from the car in front, at high speeds. He's not getting angry, he's not in a hurry, he just thinks this is perfectly acceptable road position. Scares the sh1t out of me.


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 10:40 am
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Nothing comes close to some of the things you see driving in and around Nairobi.

Or any of Kenya for that matter. At least Nairobi has metalled roads. We travelled from Nairobi to Lake Navasha and it was an eye opener (apart from the fact you daren't open your eyes).

EDIT: this was in 2006 and they were building a new motorway (which had been going on for something like ten years) so traffic was routed onto dirt tracks - bikes, cars, mini buses, lorries etc all fighting for their bit of road. Vehicles would just take the route with the least pot holes and overtake one, two and three abreast and come heading straight at you, only swerving in at the last minute. I have pictures of it but unfortunately they aren't online at the moment so I can't post them up.


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 10:43 am
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Once drove through a pedestrian underpass in Bracknell by mistake 😳 Couldn't see why I was getting such funny looks till I got to the other end to find only pavement or grass to coninue my journey on....

In my defence I did my basic learner driving in Zambia & can confirm what Graham said...nasty


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 10:55 am
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@avdave2

It sort of makes sense. The guy was walking at the end of the day ;-).

My whole family was in the car at the time. Shook me up quite a bit.

Remember if your going to do something daft on the road... hide your index plates, wear a balaclava and hide your company name 😉


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 10:57 am
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Everyone in Rome.

On roundabouts, standard practice is as follows. From the inside lane, see your exit and leave the roundabout tangentially heading towards it. Ignore other drivers until stamp on their brakes they beep wildly at you, then flip them off, presumably for having the temerity to be on the same roundabout as you.

Seriously every other car has a dent in it. Honest to god. Onb a business trip me and my colleages were in fits of laughter in the back of a taxi at the sheer bare-faced cheek of the locals.


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 10:57 am
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Roma isn't so bad just takes some getting used to.
I work there quite a lot so it's normal now.

The guys from Roma say you the driving in the South is much worse..
(traffic lights are almost respected in Roma) 🙂


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 11:00 am
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My mum was involved in a crash in The Cameroon.

Most roads between towns are single track and run ont he prinicple that 'might has the right of way' so the small vehicles pull onto the shoulder to let oncoming buses and lorries through.

The driver of her minibus obviously misjudged the size of the bus coming towards them as they had a head on crash.

There were 15 people on the minibus, 12 of them died. My mum had a broken neck, fractured skull, broken shoulder and hand. She was also covered in fuel.

She was initially placed in the row with the bodies until her travelling companion who 'only' had a broken leg noticed she was breathing.

She spent 3 days on a hospital bed with no mattress or medicine until an air ambulance coudl be organised and 2 weeks in a hospital in the capital until she was allowed to fly home for further treatment.


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 11:02 am
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When I lived in Paris some dozy bint drove her car down the steps of the Metro station next to the office, apparently thinking it was the entrance to a car park.

And David Coulthard deserves a special mention for spinning off on the formation lap when he was on pole at Monza early on in his career.


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 11:02 am
 hora
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1 week after I passed my test I decided to drive down to London and as soon as I entered London I flipped and became WORSE than the locals 😈

I even made a 4x4 driver reverse back the way he came as I decided to take a shortcut.....down a one way street. He looked gobsmacked and mrshora just shook her head. Then there was the lad who told me if I pressed my horn once more time he'd shove it down my neck....so I kept pressing it 😆


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 11:08 am
 DezB
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[i]PeterPoddy - Member
I'm not saying who
[/i]

Was it a black car by any chance?? 🙂


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 11:10 am
 hora
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Then there was the time I went down a narrow road with cars on eitherside. Another car came my way and a disagreement ensured. Driver said you should reverse (as he was in his late 50's I wasnt going to be rude) so I said 'imposssible'. 'Why?'. 'I'm not really good with the reverse gear'. 'Have you passed your test'? 'err yes but you dont understand, I have no spatial awareness at all in reverse'.. He laughed but also a look of mild concern passed over his brow 😆 🙄


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 11:11 am
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Scariest has to be heading back to our hotel in Krabi, Thailand after an evening at the local shopping district looking for fake goods. We'd had a few Changs with dinner and jumped in the cab, which was one of those crappy little pick ups with bench seting in the back and a canvas roof over the top. It's dusk and the driver's gunning the gutless little ute back along this beautiful twisting, undulating road surrounded by rainforest, when this huge artic truck begins to catch us up. As we head down into each dip in the road, we can see the truck tearing down the hill trying to build momentum, it would then get right up behind us - I could literally have reached out and touched the grille from the back of the ute - before running out of steam on the hill. He tried about 3 or 4 times before finally getting past, but it was like something straight out of Duel 😆


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 11:27 am
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Or any of Kenya for that matter. At least Nairobi has metalled roads. We travelled from Nairobi to Lake Navasha and it was an eye opener (apart from the fact you daren't open your eyes).

That is the bit of road that scares me most. I had two periods of working at Naivasha (Elsamere) in the 90s. Lovely place, but a pain to drive around.


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 11:29 am
 ski
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Was a passenger in a Maxi (25 years ago) which after losing one of its rear wheels on the M5, the driver decided if we all positioned ourselves outside the opposite window, he would be able to make it to the next motorway exit, we dident!

The Police vehicle that stopped us did not see the funny side, mentioned in 20 years of doing his job, he had never seen anything so dangerous!

Young farmers for you 😉


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 11:37 am
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Most of the people who visit the lakes over summer and dont seem to have any idea how wide their cars are. They also dont seem to know where reverse gear is either.


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 11:41 am
 hora
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Most of the people who visit the lakes over summer and dont seem to have any idea how wide their cars are. They also dont seem to know where reverse gear is either.

Or know stay to the left unless overtaking.


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 11:46 am
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I rarely see driving that I would classify as really stupid, just general annoying bits and pieces. However I have been "rolling road blocked" by two chavs in "modded" hatchbacks on the M6. I assume this was some sort of attempt at humour for them, it was late at night and it was a bunch of 3 young lads in each car. I was initially quite concerned as to why they'd be doing that. When I slowed, they slowed (and I mean down to ~40 on an empty motorway), when I sped up they closed up on me. So I drove at them, at full tilt. They moved and tried to catch me. I was bordering on getting the missus to call the police.


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 11:57 am
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On holiday in Devon many years ago we got behind this little red 3-door with an oldish couple in it - can't remember what car it was but something kind of VW Polo sized. We were heading down a narrow but flat country lane, the typical Devon lane with high hedges and steep banked verges. Coming towards us was a tractor so Red Car stops and tries to reverse back to a little gateway. Except he couldn't, he had the RH front wheel on one bank, the LH rear wheel on the other bank and the car was driving itself up this bank, the other wheels hanging in space! He tried several times, each time hitting the bank until eventually the tractor just reversed and let him through.

Amazingly, we saw him again a couple of days later, he'd tried to reverse out of a parking space and had run into the bollard on the other side of the car park and jammed the car between two other parked ones. 😯


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 11:58 am
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Dez - No. Nobody you know, put it that way. 😉

Seriously every other car has a dent in it. Honest to god. Onb a business trip me and my colleages were in fits of laughter in the back of a taxi at the sheer bare-faced cheek of the locals.

Yeah, I've been there, 'tis true.

We rode the motorbikes down to Bologna and Florence a few years ago, over the Alps.
We went round Milan. 3 lanes marked on the floor, 4 lanes of traffic using them! The motorbikes and scooters all use the hard shoulder (flat out).
We were batting along the outside lane at about 90-95mph, Mrs PP was in front. I took the 'rear gunner' position because there was a car literally about 4 feet behind me at that speed. We pull over, and it's a police car that passes us: Mid range Fiat, absolutely flat stick.
In town, you HAVE to force your way out onto every roundabout. Every traffic light is a grand prix start, and I was on a big bike, so was expected to win. I didn't dissapoint, but you have to be on the ball to get in front of all the scooters sharpish!
TBH, I [u]LOVED IT![/u] But it does get tiring after a week or two of constant flat out riding ! 🙂


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 11:58 am
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Obviously a variety of ways of classing "worst". Depends whether you think lacking the basic skills of driving is worse than lacking judgement and being scarily dangerous. Can't think of a good example of the former - but have a couple of the latter.

Coming back from Skye on those West coast Scottish roads with nice fast straights and blind bends, came round a corner to find cars coming the other way on both sides of the road. No space to stop, but fortunately a fairly benign verge on my side. Ended up with two wheels on the verge, two still on the road and cars 3 abreast (was probably still doing 40mph at that point - didn't try braking once I'd gone onto the verge).

Driving down the motorway one night, was in the middle lane with something slower than me coming up in the inside lane (I was doing ~80). Also faster traffic on my right. Spot something fast approaching in rear view mirrors - to my surprise it moves left and proceeds to undertake me. At this point I still didn't believe he was going to continue - was fast closing on the car in front on my inside. Sure enough though, he races up onto the bumper of the car in front of him and pulls out in front of me. What he neglected to bother doing was actually clearing the front of my car before pulling out - got a nice dent and scrape from just in front of the wheelarch! Fortunately at that point the right lane was clear for me to take evasive action into - otherwise it could have been horrendous. Of course I should have backed off, but it happened so quickly and I just didn't believe it was going to happen until it did.

...that is of course always assuming you can discount the time I rolled my car onto a police car as "bad driving" (I guess the fact I didn't get prosecuted for it means it probably wasn't that bad!)


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 12:36 pm
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On Wednesday we had a bit of snow in Wakefield and a friend of mine told me that she was trying to drive down a fairly steep hill and each time she pressed the brake it was pumping up and down. So she used the handbrake to get down the hill instead!!!!


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 12:48 pm
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Not that as bad as most but funny because of the look of bemusement on the women's face as she stared at her "beached" BMW after attempting an illegal right turn over a traffic island on the Hammersmith Road.


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 12:53 pm
 hora
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Not that as bad as most but funny because of the look of bemusement on the women's face as she stared at her "beached" BMW after attempting an illegal right turn over a traffic island on the Hammersmith Road.

A couple of years ago a woman turned out of her work carpark and turned straight into a traffic island (I think she was in a rush). She climbed out and jumped up and down shouting 'FARRK FARK FAAAARKKK'. I would have laughed but it was a MX5 that she was driving 🙁


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 12:58 pm
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An ex of mine saw nothing wrong with driving home from the pub on a regular basis. Watching her get out of the spaces she was parked in was hysterical, smash, smash, smash, smash, smash, smash, smash until the space was big enough.

Strangely she doesn't drive anymore.....

Hav also witnessed a couple of people driving the wrong way on dual carriage ways, a few people reversing along hard shoulders and back up slip roads, and one guy trying to join a motorway from the exit sliproad?


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 1:00 pm
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we had a porsche garage opposite my old workplace. they were unloading some new cars from a transporter and having a shuffle around one day and one of the staff obviously had a bit of throttle/brake confusion and punted a 911 into a Cayenne. Both cars still had the paint protection plastic on and the 911 looked a right mess - it's amazing how much enegry they have after travelling 20ft at full throttle.

she just stood in the car park with her head in her hands crying.


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 1:01 pm
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wwaswas, that story reminded me of [u][url=

epic parking fail[/url][/u]

If ever you needed confirmation of BMW X5 drivers...


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 1:05 pm
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As a pedestrian in Helsinki I watched a woman turning out of a junction beach her car on one of the big snowbanks that line the inside of EVERY junction for half the year. She did it slowly and I could see it about to happen.. funny 🙂 I'd have helped but I didn't know what to do. Thinking back I should've helped her dig the bank from under her car...

I also nearly killed myself and about 15 other people in the minibus I was driving on the A30 in Cornwall, dual carriageway. I'd passed a lorry which was the only other vehicle in view, left plenty of space and was about to pull back in. Checked my mirror, started to move and then a car came flying up the INSIDE at at least 120mph. Must've slalomed between me and the lorry. I was a bit shaken, then I looked again to move back and another car did the same thing. Racing tw*ts. It would have been total carnage.


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 1:19 pm
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Seen lots of things in my time but I like this one.

Saw an old man driving down a lane with a series of very tight bends, he decided to ignore the bends and just drive in a straight line up kerbs, across verges through the fields.
His missus looked petrified, white knuckles hair on end, whilst he just went on non plussed.


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 1:20 pm
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Outside our work. Police motorbike with lights and siren going, lorry pulls right across in front of bike. Kills Policeman.


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 1:21 pm
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I don't know if this "bad" driving, but in Cairo, I got a taxi to go to the railway station. I left in plenty of time, but the taxi driver was in serious hurry, as flat out as possible all the way. On the last stretch, we were behind a police car and ambulance, both with blue lights flashing, he went right up behind them and started flashing them to get out of his way.


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 1:21 pm
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A white van overtaking a line of traffic going up a steepish hill with a blind top to the hill, he made it, but a car tootled the other way about 5 seconds after he disappeared over the top, seconds away from carnage, its a 60 mile an hour road!

Idiot!


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 1:27 pm
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Driving in france, from dijon up towards the coast. I'm doing 80 or whatever the dry speed limit over there is. Car behind goes to overtake me, failing to notice motorcyclist already going round. Motorcyclist backs off to avoid being crushed against the central barrier, then when the car pulls back in, he comes up alongside it and starts kicking the shit out of it!

Couldn't believe it. They where probably doing 90 odd whilst this was going on.
Saw the car later on, side of it was completely shagged. Every panel dented in


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 1:45 pm
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My mother bless her used to have a mini traveller (old style half timbered) and my dad could never work out why it did bugger all to the gallon, putting it down to short journeys. One day he went out with her driving, she got in, pulled out the choke knob, hung her handbag on it and drove off.


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 2:10 pm
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A white van overtaking a line of traffic going up a steepish hill with a blind top to the hill, he made it, but a car tootled the other way about 5 seconds after he disappeared over the top, seconds away from carnage, its a 60 mile an hour road!

Standard procedure on the A68 (Northumberland to Edinburgh). I must see at least two dodgy overtakes like that every time I drive it. Not to mention the folk determined to do 80+ on it, despite the sharp bends, blind summits and SNOW.


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 2:16 pm
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One day he went out with her driving, she got in, pulled out the choke knob, hung her handbag on it and drove off

I learned to drive in a Fiesta with a manual choke. If you left it out for long enough the engine basically stopped working.

On a similar 'what do women think about' thread.. my dad once installed (ironically) an oil pressure gague in a car they had way back. He didn't secure the lines well enough and when my mum was driving one came off and all the oil leaked out. Fine, his fault - he accepted that. Except my mum continued to try to drive until the engine seized completely solid. He was utterly astonished how she managed to ignore the what must've been god-awful noise of the engine grinding its way to seizure without thinking 'what's that noise?'


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 2:30 pm
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Piston:
That made us laugh.
I reminded me of my assistant, who swore blind she was a good driver, on her life (even though her sister tells stories on many near misses).
Anyhow, we’ve pulled into a park, off the A1)M) near apex corner, rejoining the 3 lane carriageway, she joins the middle lane, doing 30, there’s only one car for miles, he’s in the middle lane, doing about 80.
I braced for impact and poor bloke, he slams on his anchors and stands it on its nose.
To this day, she swears blind he was driving too quickly and he had to get out of her way – not that she even saw him in the first place.
She’d had a few accidents, but mostly, she’d seen dozens in her rear view mirror!

Molgrip. I think when an engine seizes, the pistons stop moving and you stop, depress the clutch quickly! but no end-of-the-world cacophony.


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 2:38 pm
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Not quite on a par with some of these, but in the flurry of snow we had here in Belmont a couple of days ago, no fewer than 6 new holes appeared in walls and fences along the A675. I don't understand why people expect their car to behave like it would on a summer's day on 2 inches of snow on top of black ice. Morons...


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 2:43 pm
 hora
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zokes between 11pm and 5am and you'll see that drunks drive all year round during these times...The snow and ice offer less forgiving conditions for a alcohol-fogged mind.

On the giant roundabouts coming down from Stalybridge to Ashton every morning you'd see fresh holes ripped in the railings where drunk drivers had driven towards them at high speed in a straight line then presumably just pilled on into the roundabout 😆

Around our way - every morning around 5.30-6.30amish you can hear the familiar quick two-blips of the siren 'whoop-whoop' of a Police car alerting a car to pull over for a breathalyser...


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 2:46 pm
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A guy at work told me a good one. He was going through a divorce and has just seen his missus so a bit stressed out. He went to get some petrol. Pulled up to the pump, unfamilier car, wrong side. Grrr pissed off pissed off slams it into reverse and floors it .......

Right into a couple of pumps which he manages to severely damage.

Petrol starts pissing everywhere

Alarm sounds

Major evacuation incident


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 2:47 pm
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Sheik Zayed Road in Dubai is terrifying


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 3:33 pm
 hora
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Major evacuation incident

You know, for once that really does have a double-meaning when you throw in a leaking petrol station and metal on metal..


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 3:41 pm
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Seen plenty but have been guilty of stoopid things myself a few times...

As hora above, passed my driving test back in the mid nineties, got a car and headed off to visit mates in London...tried desperately to plan my route to avoid the Hangar Lane gyratory...but still managed to end up having to do a righty on it just after getting off the A40 to head towards Ealing - I nearly shat myself, never having negotiated anything other than two lanes during lessons etc...suddenly I'm faced with getting across around five lanes with London drivers - I'm sure I scared some of them shitless. 😯

Best ever was in Dallas when I was there for work. Driving back from yet another 3 hour Mexican lunch - I'm sat at a mahoosive junction - traffic light controlled crossroads. Four lanes of traffic on either side (so eight crossing eight with islands down the middle to separate each four). I'm in the right hand lane waiting to make a right turn. One colleague is in the passenger seat, two more in the back (all yanks). Lights go green, I go back into UK mode, go straight past the four lanes I should have turned into and make like I'm doing a right turn at home - straight into the wrong side of the road. It's empty, for some reason not a soul around, the guys in the car start screaming at me and then I realise what's happened when I see four sets of headlights coming towards me...thankfully all slowing down. All I can do is mount the central reservation which must have been around nine inches high, scrape the shit out of the undercarriage with three yanks about to faint. I must have looked like a total tw4t - but it was funny. Strangely enough, I was never allowed to drive to lunch again.


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 3:43 pm
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On a personal level, my sister gets my vote.

Years ago on a Saturday night my parents were at their friend's house and my sister called them asking if she could borrow money to go out that night. My mum said yes but she had to come round and get it. My sister asked if she could drive their Mercedes to get there and they said no.

She went in the huff about this and went out to get her car instead. In the garage was my MGF, in front of the garage was her Punto and behind that was my parents Merc. She had to reverse the Merc out to get her car out so still in a rage because she wasn't getting to drive the Merc, she jumped in and went to reverse it out. It's a quiet cul-de-sac so she's looked about and saw no one was there and she's floored the accelerator in a fit of rage but the EPIC FAIL moment was the fact she'd put it in first gear instead of reverse so she shot forward into the back of her Punto which she then rammed into the garage door which then hit the back of my MGF.

I don't think I spoke to her for 6 months after that.


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 3:43 pm
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MGF? interesting choice of car - maybe your sister did you a favour


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 3:49 pm
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Nope. My MGF was an excellent little car. Don't believe the hype.


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 3:51 pm
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My Mrs had an MGF when we met and it was ****ing hopeless. Terrible scuttle shake and truly shameful build quality. They went bust for very good, sound reasons.


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 4:00 pm
 Keva
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saw police car driving down a high st. on a busy Saturday afternoon at about 50-60mph, no emergency sigals or anything and then locked the wheels up and skidded sideways to a halt when a pigeon landed on the ground in fron of the car to eat some crisps someone had dropped.

saw a police car with four police inside driving along the M4 between Bath and Swindon during really severe high speed winds well in excess of 95mph (no emergency signals) and the car was being blown right across three lanes sometimes and the driver made no effort to slow down.

seen loads more. A near head on collision sticks in my mind when some idiot decided to overtake in a dip. We were at the brow and could see the car coming the other way, knobber obviously didn't. Screech... cars skidding into the hedges to avoid each other.

Saw a driver enter the M4 slip road at Maidenhead heading towards Reading and went across all three lanes, through the central reservation (at the time there was a gap there) and across the three lanes on the other carriageway, missing our van and a head on collision at 80+mph by about 1cm and then ending up in the ditch.

The list is endless...


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 4:12 pm
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Plenty of bad but 'the worst' in terms of consequences and the effect it had on me and the family:

Heading out of Bath on the A36 a few years ago, on 'Good Friday' of all days, for those who might know it, the Warminster Road. 30 limit up-hill. Me driving, family on board, in a queue of traffic doing 30. I see a red Corsa attempting some diabolical overtakes in my off-side mirror. Pushing his way past people in the face of oncoming traffic, I move left and let him by. He looked possessed.

Ahead of us is a Landrover with another family onboard. The road narrows and he's stuck behind it.

At the end of a straight there are a series of S bends, it goes from 30 to 40 to NSL.

We lose sight of the Corsa and Landrover as they head around the bend.

I slowed anticipating the worst and sure enough around the next bend the Landrover was across the road, the Corsa on it's side and the oncoming car smashed up (I forget what it was - probably couldn't identify it front on come to think of it).

As anyone who's come across a proper collision will testify the results are not pretty.

Corsa driver was not wearing a seat belt and got thrown out of the drivers window, taking off the back of his head. He was still conscious and combative though and screamed for a good few minutes before going quiet.

Thankfully no-one else involved was seriously (physically) injured but the woman and young female passenger (daughter?) who he collided with and the family in the Landrover who witnessed his death were understandably traumatised.

I put gloves on before trying to deal with him but ended up cutting my hand on broken glass trying to cradle his head on the floor - my blood mixed with his, my suspicions confirmed, he turned out to be an IV drug user so I had an agonising wait for Hep and HIV test results.

His parents phoned me a couple of days later, he'd had an argument with his girlfriend. They wanted to know how he had died and I lied and said "peacefully".

Ride and drive carefully out there 😉


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 4:13 pm
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my mum in her smart car trying to do a 3 point turn 😯


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 4:19 pm
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I'm not saying who, but I've been in a car with someone who really thinks they are a good diver, but in reality has absolutely no skill at all.
They spend all their time either flat out on the gas, or hard on the brakes, and really is a danger, but just can't see it. Too close, too hard, too fast, no observation, no concentration, no smoothness. An utter mess.
I've been in their car a couple of times, once in heavy traffic, and I was absolutely scared witless. Never again, if I can possibly avoid it. I'd rather walk.

If it's a STWer you're referring to, I reckon I could have a stab at who it might be...


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 4:23 pm
 jonb
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My two favourite are the guy who pulled out to overtake (I was on my bike) in sight of a T junction managed to lose control of his car mount the pavement and hit the grass bank. Bit of a brown trouser moment for me as he was quite close.

Second was a guy who was so impatient that on a single lane bridge about 5 m long he decided that he would overtake me by mounting the curb with two wheels and trying to get past.


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 4:24 pm
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seen a few people drifting (full on tail out) on round abouts in rush hour traffic - some in better control than others but still pretty stupid!


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 4:53 pm
 LoCo
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Posted : 05/02/2010 4:56 pm
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1996, Walking down the to the pub to watch Euro 96, hear a screaming engine..... Mini flies up the road, clips the roundabout (2ft high), mounts the pavement opposite me and knocks down the bus stop much to the horror of the 6 people stood there!!!
As the car went passed i saw the driver with her head bent backwards over the seat.....
i ran in the nearest shop and got Them to call the emergency services then set off up the road after her.

She had made it around the bend before her engine seized having ripped out the sump at the bus stop and people were helping her out of the car.

She was very elderly and asked "was i going a little fast back there"?

...... HER RIGHT FOOT HAD A PLASTER CAST ON IT !!

Policeman suggested she wouldn't be driving again ...... saw her a month later driving the same car!!!..... go figure?


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 5:13 pm
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I rolled a baby suzuki 4wd thing fairly spectacularly. That was utter rubbish driving. It was on a straight dirt road. I forgot I wasn't driving a hi lux, I swerved to avoid a bird, as it started to slide I lifted off rather than powered thru - spun then flipped corner to corner. about 3 rolls IIRC. No glass left in it, whole body at a funny angle not an undented panel. No injuries fortunately bar a severely bruised ego.

FAIL


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 5:39 pm
 rs
Posts: 28
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my scariest time in a car was just after I left school and was working in a small engineering office to get some work experience before going to uni. Well the boss had a habit of falling asleep (there's a name for it) and also did this while driving I soon found out. Thank god for rumble strips on the motorway 😯 Hill starts (or should that be stops) weren't much fun, stopped at traffic lights and he would fall asleep and start rolling back, its not easy when your the new kid nudging the the company owner to tell him he's fallen asleep at the wheel again 😯


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 5:49 pm
Posts: 1014
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i forgot about a guy from work, that i don't know, came out of car park. rear wheel seized - car slid to a halt, he got out kicked the wheel and drove off, the wheel of course seized again - this time he continued driving - engine bouncing off the limiter - rear nearside wheel completely locked, tyre smoke every where, tyres are screeching by the time he's caught up with me (walking) 1/8th of a mile - got out and looked at it really puzzled like!!

moral of the story - replace the wheel bearing when it starts to rumble!


 
Posted : 05/02/2010 5:56 pm
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