What's your stupidest driving moment?

[Qwerty321]

What's the stupidest thing you've done while driving a car? Sure we all take pride in our driving and probably do drive far better than the average muppet, but we've all had to have had lapses in judgement right? I'll start with my own example for this mobile confession booth for driving sins

Was about 8.30am about a month ago while back home on midsemester break, had just been woken up by the father cause he needed my to back the car in so he could take things down to the local tip. In my brain dead state I decided the best way to get down this incredible narrow driveway would be to pull into the drive across the road and then back across the road and straight down our drive. I waited for a gap and went for it, assuming (rather stupidly of me) that Auckland drivers in rush hour would probably slow down a bit to let me across. Oh how I was wrong! When I started backing across I noticed the other car was infact speeding so decided to get across quick. This driver see's me in her lane and goes for an overtake, not accounting for me getting across the road quickly. Now I'm on the other side out of her lane, but she's in the opposite lane, still bearing down on me! Long story short she panics and slams the brake, I panic and nail the throttle to get out of the way quick and end up on the grass verge outside my house looking like an idiot. Now I'm sitting here stupidly on the grass and she's on the wrong side of the road glaring at me with the "what the **** are you doing" face. Me realising there really isn't a good explanation just does the sheepish "I'm sorry, my bad" wave and proceed to reverse off the verge and down the drive.

What inspired this thread do you ask? Well that would be the "Brain-dead drivers, the stupidity...it hurts!" thread by nooramablue. Cause I'll be honest, in that instant, I fell well in the category of "should be dragged off the road and have the absolute book thrown at them"

[mik]

You probably wont get a lot of replies in this one .
i can recall a moment of foolishness ...... among many , as a young bloke i put a 68 corty into a gully/drain on a dirt road with my two left wheels while doing a bit of rally cross out in the sticks in the early hours of one winter morning, it wasnt a problem till the gully stopped , the front wheel and suspension hit the passenger floor .
i managed to back it out of the gully , then set about putting the wheel back in place sort of with a bit of spanner and hammer magic, ( i had a full tool box in the boot ) , and used my seat belts unbolted from the interior to hold the wheel/lower control arm in place as the stabilizer bracket that holds the wheels in place was bent and torn off .
some time later it was long 140 k`s limping the corty back to home , it did make it .
i have some really good life stories , not too many i can put on here though .

[zeuss000]

MANY years ago back when i lived in NZ (1968) i was 15, in my Mums Mini and had had my license for 2 weeks so obviously knew all about driving by then, was on a gravel road hooning around with a mate and was coming up to a big sweeping corner with a large puddle of water and a couple of hikers next to the puddle, thought it would be a great laugh to scream through the puddle and soak them, well got a bit close to the edge of the road and about a meter dropof. Ended with the mini upside down in the paddock wondering what the hell just happened! That be Karma my friends.. The hikers took it really well, after they stopped laughing the helped us flip it back over and away we went. Lesson learned..

[Peter B - CV8]

Back in the very early 70's & on my P's. Was travelling along behind another car on a multi lane road at about 70 kph - when for some reason they came to a halt with no traffic in front of them & other lane clear.
So I jumped over into the other lane to get past & nearly bowled over the poor pedestrian that was crossing the road on the clearly marked crossing...
I pulled over to the side of the road, shaking in shock at what I'd nearly done & apologized to the pedestrian (who was pretty good about it).

[Sioso]

My first outing after getting my licence 25yrs ago was to the movies with a few mates.
I had a UC Torana with some mild mods and thought I was king of the road.
After leaving the cinema late at night I pulled up at the first set of traffic lights and beside me was another guy with friends in the car, he was making a flashing signal with his hand to let me know I hadn't turned my lights on (I thought it meant something else).
My mate asks what is this guy doing?
I exclaim "HE WANTS A DRAG RACE"!!!
So clutch in, select 1st, bring and the revs up and as the light turns green I wheelspin across the intersection and leave this guy in my dust.
A bit further down the road I was having trouble seeing and that's when I connected all the dots as to what just happened.
Anyway, a win is win regardless.......

[Mowdit]

Again, years ago (as no one would admit to anything post being "young" and dumb)
A great night out at the go carts
Left in my car, hopefully not going any quicker than normal, but, came up to a roundabout and turned the wheel "go cart style" (not even half a turn!)
Up over the roundabout with both right hand wheels

Learnt that the steering ratio in the car is far different to that of a go cart

Edit: no damage, lesson learnt !

[fordomatic]

When i first got my P's in 2003 and i was driving to Brisbane from Melbourne on the Newell Highway.

My aircon was not working properly in my EF Fairmont and i took my eyes off the road and fiddled with it to get it working. I heard a gravel like noise and when i looked up i was heading straight for a tree. I swerved to miss it and it threw the car sideways back onto the bitumen. Now i was heading sideways straight for a truck so i countersteered and managed to get it back into control. I still remember the look on the truckies face as he thought he was about to hit me. I pulled over and sat on the side of the road for over an hour thinking how i almost lost my life.

Two things:
The two week defensive driving course I undertook when I got my P's saved my life.
I have still to this day never checked my phone or fiddled with anything on the dash while driving.

[Sabantien]

Few years ago, going for my first trip overseas. I was pretty excited and nervous, and VERY distracted.

Driving to my brother's place I realised too late I had a red light. Hit the anchors, and being a crappy old car all I did was skid and keep going. I'm sure I didn't even slow down.

Luckily cars coming the other way had better brakes than I did, and I just hit the accelerator to get out of the intersection as quick as possible.

Super paranoid about checking red lights ever since, especially that set!

[Vesper Martini]

Again Years ago, feels like a Therapy session.
sitting at a motorway off ramp, about to turn right over a bridge in the pouring rain.
It was 1am and I only had my RS Legacy for 2 weeks, I thought why not...
dumped the clutch turned right, and went into a nice drift, but then the front wheels bit. I over corrected and spun sideways into the bridge railing facing the wrong way.
The railing of course stopped me from Plummeting back down to the Motorway..

I learned a bit more how a 4WD responds in a slide & fair bit else that night.

[DJM83]

114kph in a 60kph zone. Wrong side of the road racing my mate, directly towards a hwp hiding behind a tree.

[Trump]

Locking my keys in the XF about an hour after boasting I had never locked my keys in 10 years of driving

[Ben73]

17 years old in my 2000 Magna driving in an industrial area with massive roads, like 25 - 30 meters wide.

It was a weekend so no traffic anywhere. I was doing about 80 approaching a bend which was 90 degrees. I'm thinking no need to slow down, wide roads, no traffic she'll be right. Well mid bend I oversteered and slid around 180 degrees facing the way I came rolling backwards.
I was no where near hitting anything, but it still scared me. I drove the rest of the way home pretty slow after that.

Since that I have been a lot more aware of fast cornering.

[ford71V8]

P plate story.
We are on the second level of shopping centre carpark after hours so no other cars around. Put the Datto in to 1st and get it rolling. Then we JUMP OUT the car and run around it as its moving forward and get back in to take the wheel again before it reaches the concrete barriers at the edge.
What the **** were we thinking?

[westoftown]

I was 17 on my P's with 2 other mates in the car & driving Dad's Ford Focus (this was 2007), there's this bit on One Tree Hill Rd in Adelaide where you go down a hairpin & then the road narrows out and it's a nice long downhill stretch with a cliff drop off to the east, and right at the bottom of the gully there's a little bridge before it continues on uphill. This bridge is just enough for 2 cars to pass each other.

I came to a standstill right at the top of the hill just before the hairpin and put the car in neutral and just let it roll to the bottom. About half way down i saw a car coming the other way and the thought crossed my mind that i ought stop, this could be dangerous. Nah. Kept her rolling and passed the other car right on the bridge doing about 140 in neutral while our drivers door mirrors had a bee's d*ck between them.

Never did that again....

[sr71]

2 Rear Enders in one day.

10AM: in the XE S Pack 5 speed!, late braking and I hit a Windscreens Obrien van's rear Bull Bar ( tail light protector ). No worries says the guy- no damage to his van.

Lunchtime: fit right headlight outside wreckers. Good to go again.

3PM ( on the way to night shift). Just kiss the back of a Mitsubushy Nimbus....Double BOOF, go both headlights. Again, victim's old car was given the all clear.

Midnight: I tailgate a workmate 1/2 way home, and drive the rest with my Night Vision.
Next day. Bulk Discount on 2nd & 3rd headlight at wreckers.

[asagaai]

Yea- like Mik I have many dumb moments, some I cannot post for self incrimination.

But the first dumb one was I was just 17, got my first car, a Mk2 GT Cortina- and battery was flat. So, the old man was at work, and I jumped into his HQ kingswood column shift auto, to get it in position to jump start the Cordy.

Anyways, being young, I thought I may take the Kingswood for a quick blat up the road to test out the 3.3 litre engine, and decided to use the manual mode in the auto column shift, took it out all the way in 1st, fast shift into second (or what I thought was second) while on a bend, but brilliantly whacked it into reverse unwittingly.

Rear end locked up and snapped, car going at about 60 slid into gutter, flipped over onto roof. I had not bothered to put my seatbelt on for the quick blat, fell onto the roof, and it was sliding along the roadway on the roof, terrible screech of metal on tar being ground, and sparks flying, and I had time to think "this is not good, I should not be on the ceiling right now".

Car ended up going through a brick wall- and was cactus.

And I was cactus with the old man- and have never owned a automatic vehicle since then- something about a clutch pedal now resonates so well with me.

o

[OLD BALDY]

probably 50+ rallies!!!

[DJL351]

Trying to drift a 80s Datsun Sunny around a 'round-a-bout in the wet when I was 17.
I made it three quarters of the way around before the power plant (all 1200cc) coughed and it turned me around on the spot.

** Made even more laughable by the fact Mum and Dad were approaching the same 'round-a-bout from another direction and they saw the whole thing.

[Tonz]

NZ has grass verges...no gravel
Dad & mum are away
Dad has a 3.5L V8 Rover in garage and owns service station and car yard.
I have new girlfriend and a clapped out mini.

Choose to drive Rover, nice dinner, then she throws a shirty, I dump her home in country and blast home.
Big sweeping S bend,, no problems,....whoops this is too fast, why am I going sideways.
Get home clean up the Rover, change me pants.

4 months later get home from work and dad asks if I had any problems when I took Rover out..... no says I cautiously...why?
The boys at work were changing the tyres today and there was long grass pushed up inside the rims...............hmmmm strange.

[blackf6]

Conned my Grandad into giving me a fixer upper. Said I wouldn't drive it. Blah blah blah. Burn outs, out of town in cane field country. No licence, no rego. Driving through town. Clutch gives up the ghost. Car got stripped and rolled on its roof by the nice townsfolk. Grandad was not happy.

[Mercury Bullet]

Please don't take this the wrong way...

But getting into the car with my best mate to do some skids...he was a Thalidomide baby with no arms.

God we laughed so hard when we were upside down in a paddock.

Things you do when you're a kid!

[Autolite]

I overtook a tractor on McIntyre Rd Sunshine with a blown diff

[.:4:.]

Good old p plate stories... back in the tafe days, one of the guys dropped a 1 out the front of tafe to impress the boys, so I thought I would go one better in a kingswood ute with a modified efi 5l (probably made 190kw at the motor if it was lucky, but that was impressive back then) and a mini spool in the 10 bolt diff. I did do a better job, then when I was gutter to gutter at probably about 60 kays, hit a puddle, spun 180, came within about half a hair from 4 parked cars, crapped my dacks, kept it smoking then drove back past still frying the retreads to make it look intentional. I never did admit that the 30 odd meters of backwards with the car in 3rd at 4000 rpm wasn't planned or wanted... the boys also wondered why I never did it again when they did either..

[SSD-85]

My stupidest driving moment?

Behind the wheel of a Holden.

I wanted to die. By Draino. Cleansing.

[duaned]

Mine was recently doing 155km/h in an 80 zone. I dont drive my VF often, but with the mods it accelerates rapidly before my eyes. The hwy cop was good, he just booked me for 10 over as I had a perfect record (until this moment) and I went home with my tail between my legs. Lesson learnt, and I admit it was very stupid.

[.:4:.]

Originally Posted by duaned

Mine was recently doing 155km/h in an 80 zone. I dont drive my VF often, but with the mods it accelerates rapidly before my eyes. The hwy cop was good, he just booked me for 10 over as I had a perfect record (until this moment) and I went home with my tail between my legs. Lesson learnt, and I admit it was very stupid.

The one thing on the top of my stupidity list, was blowing 0.63. Having no previous record, the young officer was more then ready to right it up, but the older bloke made it slide. Scared me hard. Previously I had blown over twice, both below the 0.02 limit for p platers in the grace period before the 0 limit was in force. For the past 7 years I have relied on a licence to hold my job, and for the past 9 years I haven't had to talk my way out of driving bans, mainly because I haven't put myself back into that situation. My brother spent 6 and a half years on the bus, and it ruined ant form of career advancement.

[Neale]

yeh I've got one as well.
I was out driving my parents EL when I first got my P's & had my mate in the car who was a holden fan he bagged out the car so I thought I would show him how fast the car would go in an 80 zone, what could possibly go wrong hey.

Well I wound it out to about $160 when the car crested a steep hill, at this point the old falcon took off like a scene out of the dukes of hazard, then came down on the dirt verge & I became a passenger. The car spun & we hit a telegraph pole which did its best to saw the car in half with a little help from a snapped tail shaft that came through the cabin.

We both came very close to loosing our lives that night & ended up with my mate spending a long time in the hospital & me spending a few nights at her majesty's hotel, which wasn't any fun for either of us.

Moral of this story, these stories may sound like fun kids but in most cases it's luck rather than skill that things didn't end up any worse.

[Loonar]

Boy oh boy, can relate to the ' P ' plate syndrome and most of the above stories.
My particular episode is :- Dropping some mates off at he footy oval in my XR with 289, early 70's... Disgorge them from said vehicle, show off, plant foot on grassy verge, picture circular out of control wheel spin, couldn't have hit that light pole anymore square on if i'd really tried !!
Pt. 2 of same story, after having new bonnet and grill and bumper etc., replaced, hadn't quite got rad. support panel sorted hence bonnet wouldn't lock down properly, no worries, will strap her down with wire !!
Cruising down busy road, wire gives up the ghost, bonnet flips up and becomes windscreen accessory !!
So, 2 bonnets plus other bits in a couple of weeks, thank goodness there were quite a few easily obtainable spares around then .........

[Pis-ton broke]

how did i survive my adolescence? i was 18 when this happened.

a party at the neapan river down jackson lane. shane comes up "you wont a race" ,ok, i say.
i have 1971 valiant hardtop 245. hes got a torana.

3 people in his car 2 in mine

so we take off on this one truck wide lane, i,m in front , i stopped gasin it cause the t he intersection is coming up, and its night and headlights on early 1970 cars aren,t great.
next thing the torana,s passing on the grass verge and hes in front.

so he go,s flying through the intersection ,up a small bank, and the car flips end to end and lands on its roof. i lock up and skid through the intersection and stop in time.

so i park my car and we go to other car, and these no sound, well we didn,t know if anybody was even alive? and its pitch black. could smell petrol.

every body comes running down the road and the girls were screaming and just hysterical.
we got two people out of the car and third one was trapped. police, rescue, fire, ambos all came quick, a big bank of lights and they cut out the last guy.

so the body count is , sally and shane and other guy went to hospital . other guy released early and shane some back issue , sally stayed in a few days but ok. truth is that they could have burnt live, and thank god it didn,t happen.

the police got a statement from me, and i said i was driving down the road when shane over took me. i never said we were racing. i didn,t get charged, and i never told my perants. i,m shore the police knew what happened.

[beardo]

Probably 3 years ago i did a pretty hard 12hr shift from midnight to midday. Sun was shining nicely through the window and i was about an hour and 50 mins into my 2hr drive home on the calder freeway when i nodded off and woke up in middle of the freeway heading straight for a guard on an overpass, quick reef on the wheel and got very lucky. Was so angry at myself for letting it happen and haven't got close to it happening again. Sometimes I'll pull over a dozen times if i have to.

Ok and p plater shenanigans, my first car with cruise control was a vn ss and i thought it would be hilarious to switch it on whilst on the freeway at 110kmh and overtake my mate whilst steering from the passenger seat. He told me it was a silly move but he then did the exact same thing to me in his statesman