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submitted 2 months ago by jqubed@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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.

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[-] bluGill@kbin.run 89 points 2 months ago

I saw someone who mantained the legal speed limit and safe following distance.

[-] Spider89@lemmy.world 38 points 2 months ago
[-] shinigamiookamiryuu@lemm.ee 10 points 2 months ago

In Attack of the Clones, Kenobi probably broke a handful of driving laws.

[-] Luci@lemmy.ca 19 points 2 months ago

This has gotta be made up!!!!

[-] VelvetStorm@lemmy.world 15 points 2 months ago

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.

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[-] Vanth@reddthat.com 65 points 2 months ago

Ooh, thought of another. I once saw a gentlemen driving down the mountain who must not have known that riding his brakes all the way down would cause them to overheat and fail. He was free rolling and honking his horn, weaving in and out to avoid hitting people. Sheer panic on his face.

Fortunately, he had the wherewithal to steer up one of the emergency offramps. I caught up to him a couple mins after he passed me. He was standing, leaning against his car, and just breathing. He was not a white guy, but somehow he still looked so pale. Glad no one got hurt with that one, that could have easily led to one or more deaths if things had happened just a little differently.

[-] grue@lemmy.world 24 points 2 months ago

That seems more like a crazy situation caused by an honest mistake rather than a person doing something crazy, but I upvoted anyway.

[-] Zirconium@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago

Wait I never knew that you could overheat and fail if you rode it down the mountain. Holy shit

[-] Vanth@reddthat.com 14 points 2 months ago

Yep, you want to do engine braking. That's when you downshift and the engine slows the car. Even with an automatic transmission, you can downshift to 2nd so long as you're under 50mph or so. You want to be slower than 20 before shifting down to 1st gear.

If you ever have a chance to drive up Pikes Peak in Colorado, 1) it's gorgeous and 2) they have a stop halfway down where park rangers will check your brake temps with an IR thermometer. If you're too hot, they make you sit there in your car for a while for the brakes to cool off and they give you tips on engine braking. Lots of flatlanders driving in the mountains for the first time and learning lessons the hard way.

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[-] slothrop@lemmy.ca 45 points 2 months ago

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...

[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago

Ok.......I want THAT car!!! Forget airbags, and modern safety standards. This dude rolls his car TWICE and just drives off.

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[-] Coldcell@sh.itjust.works 43 points 2 months ago

Just last week, a car had missed their turn on the motorway, so decided to REVERSE up the hard shoulder.

[-] Yarninator@lemmy.world 43 points 2 months ago

Reminds me of a saying I heard: "Good drivers sometimes miss their turn. Bad drivers never miss their turn."

[-] ThePantser@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago

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!

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[-] MicrowavedTea@infosec.pub 32 points 2 months ago

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.

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[-] Vanth@reddthat.com 30 points 2 months ago

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.

[-] Anticorp@lemmy.world 22 points 2 months ago

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.

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[-] randompasta@lemmy.today 15 points 2 months ago

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.

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[-] norimee@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago

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.

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[-] hactar42@lemmy.ml 28 points 2 months ago

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.

[-] marshadow@lemmy.world 26 points 2 months ago

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.

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[-] Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 24 points 2 months ago

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.

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[-] KittenBiscuits@lemm.ee 22 points 2 months ago

I was on the beltway one night in a construction zone. They had jersey walls (concrete barriers) instead of cones and barrels to shift traffic. The SUV in front of me had not been weaving or worrying me at all when it drifted into the jersey wall in the left and just ground along it doing about 70. I expected them to jerk the wheel the other way, but they didn't. After a few seconds, they drifted back to the center of the lane. Just as I was thinking good on them for not panicking, they slammed back into the jersey wall and rode it until it ended. Their car was scraped all to hell. They had to have fallen asleep (passed out drunk). The grinding noise of car on concrete and flying sparks were too obvious to not be noticed by a conscious driver. I backed way off and fortunately was nearing my exit.

[-] Zer0Rank@sopuli.xyz 21 points 2 months ago

Drove past a guy on the highway, driving 100kph, wondered why he first drove so slow, then sped up, then slowed again... He was reading a book while driving 🤦‍♂️ One other guy, driving 80kph hardly could keep the truck on his own lane, so I drove past him. He was filling in some paper forms, while he had a cup of, assumably, coffee in the other hand, and tried to keep the truck going straight with that. Jeez these people...

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[-] RattlerSix@lemmy.world 20 points 2 months ago

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.

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Was at a red light with a cop behind me. Some guy rolls up behind them, braking just late enough that the front bumper of his car love taps the rear bumper of the squad car.

Both officers immediately jump out and open fire on the poor guy. He was hosed after a couple of rounds. The cops just casually get back in and drive off like it was nothing.

This was in Los Santos btw.

[-] Rev3rze@feddit.nl 16 points 2 months ago

The fact that I could believe it right up until the moment they just drove off is telling...

[-] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 17 points 2 months ago

Seen too much shit.

People driving and: texting, watching movies, reading with books or newspapers pinned to the steering wheels, working on a laptop with those steering wheel laptop holders, applying makeup, shaving. Sometimes more than one of these things at a time.

The cellphone video/text/surfing is a multiple times a day occurrence. People drive with their phones in their hands and use them all the damn time.

Seen two people deceased, one hit while attempting to cross a busy road well away from a crossing area, another thrown from the car after rolling it because they’d clipped a car while they were speeding and weaving through traffic.

People backing up in breakdown lanes on freeways to make an exit. People crossing multiple lanes rapidly, cutting off other cars, to avoid missing an exit. People OUI weaving in a lane. People nearly coming to a full stop in traffic to avoid missing an exit or turn.

Yeah, think that’s most of it. I’m sure I’ve forgotten some. I’m sure I’ll see more tomorrow.

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[-] Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 17 points 2 months ago

Woman with a pink suction cup dildo attached to the inside of her window, vigorously sucking it while going throughly an intersection.

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[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 15 points 2 months ago

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.

[-] bamboo@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 2 months ago

What was the other time he ran from the cops?

[-] i_am_not_a_robot@feddit.uk 12 points 2 months ago

Drum on their steering wheel with actual drumsticks.

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[-] blackstrat@lemmy.fwgx.uk 12 points 2 months ago

Was waiting outside the student union one afternoon. Loads of other students about. Student guy drives past slowly in an old Vauxhall Nova or similar, thinking he's pretty cool. Then the front wheel falls off, and starts rolling down the street. The car slams into the road loudly and the guy gets out and starts chasing after the wheel. Didn't end up looking as cool as he'd hoped.

[-] grumpo_potamus@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago

Picked up my daughter from her school parking lot years ago and while waiting at the stop sign to turn back onto the road a car goes by with their back tire smoking. I thought it was locked up from braking, but it was punctured and tearing apart. They made no effort to stop or really even slow down much. They continued on and the tire shredded to the point they were driving on the rim. They kept going and onto an even busier major road, which is when I lost track of them as we were turning the other way.

[-] MerchantsOfMisery@lemmy.ml 12 points 2 months ago

Cops on laptops/phones while driving on the highway and getting a pass literally every time they're driving distracted and kill or injure someone.

Every single year in my city someone gets smoked by a cop car/SUV, and the internal investigations always determine via CCTV + phone activity logs that yes their officer was on their phone/laptop, yes they were speeding, yes they went through a red light, yes they failed to have their 🚨 on, but... No, they're never found guilty and the whole internal investigation is the furthest thing from transparent to the public.

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[-] shinigamiookamiryuu@lemm.ee 12 points 2 months ago

I was riding down the highway and spent time looking out the window as I often do since I'm bad at keeping up in conversations. Parallel to our vehicle is this very highbrow lawyer, who I recognized because I had been to the courts before. Maybe he didn't think he would end up driving so parallel to any vehicle, but there he was, quite visibly texting while driving. Or maybe playing Candy Crush, I don't know. I definitely don't snitch under those circumstances, but my friend's kid, who was in the passenger seat behind me, hears me mutter to myself about the willingness to "if only my hand was forced", takes my camera which I always have with me and takes a picture, and within minutes, it's all over the airwaves. The lawyer's standing did not exist for much longer.

[-] LotrOrc@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago

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.

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[-] scytale@lemm.ee 12 points 2 months ago

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.

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[-] cordlesslamp@lemmy.today 12 points 2 months ago

My driving instructor ran a red light, driving with one hand (sometimes even no hands on the wheel for a few seconds), texting and calling while driving.

Surprisingly, when it came to the lessons, he's the strictest instructor I've ever had. Teaching me good habits and forces me following the laws by-the-letter.

I passed my driver's license with max points.

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[-] stinerman@midwest.social 11 points 2 months ago

I get that the spirit is what a person has seen IRL, but there's a pretty (in)famous video of a guy having sex with a woman in the driver's seat of a Tesla in self-driving mode.

[-] Coskii@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 2 months ago

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.

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[-] GoofSchmoofer@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago

Had a guy pass me on the right going 20+ over the limit while taking a bong hit.

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[-] noxy@yiffit.net 11 points 2 months ago

police SUV tearing ass around a busy strip mall parking lot at night with its lights off

not just the police lights, also the headlights and running lights.

thing was completely dark while the cop was driving super aggressively, ran a stop sign too

[-] k0mprssd@lemmy.zip 10 points 2 months ago

one morning I was headed to school and I witnessed this one car driving a little erratically while on the highway, I managed to get past them but kept an eye on my rear mirror, less than a minute later they slammed into another car causing a crash.

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[-] LostAndSmelly@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago

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.

[-] stelelor@lemmy.ca 10 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

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.

[-] Sensitivezombie@lemmy.zip 9 points 2 months ago

Drinking red wine from a wine glass as they were making a right turn (US) on a 40 mph street.

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[-] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 9 points 2 months ago

I once saw a car driving the wrong way on a one way, make a turn to drive the wrong way on a second one way.

I've seen two people clearly on phones hit each other as they were accelerating at a stop light, and then keep going. Fortunately the really only screwed up their front quarter panels from what I could see.

I've seen someone use an entry ramp to pass on the right.

I've seen someone who missed their exit try to still make it by driving through the grass, it didn't really work.

I've seen several impromptu street races, the best was a hellcat and some crotch rockets.

The craziest was probably a pickup truck with a huge load of straw bails that had caught on fire.

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this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2024
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