Crazy Driver Stories

That Guy said:

I have nothing against slowing or stopping for wildlife...if it's safe to do so.

A girl here (think it was down east) stopped for some wildlife crossing the road in what I assume was heavy traffic. A couple on their motor bikes rear-ended her car and died.

I believe she went to jail for that. Negligent homicide I think. (Can't find the article, but it was national news for a while.)

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That's crazy!!!! But true , if it is safe, stop, if not, then just move on.

That's like driving with my girl riding passenger. Squirrel runs out and she panics STOP!!!!! Luckily I have control of the brakes and steering or else I question if she would drive us into a tree.
She hit a raccoon once and was hysterical. It happened right down the road one night, she came home and even asked if I could go make sure it was okay. Uhhhhhhh, what?
I convinced her it was raccoons who keep digging up the gopher tortoise nests and eating them in my yard, stating she just saved many tortoises lives, that made her feel better.

Around Milwaukee, during rush hour, we have a bypass that is three lanes in each direction. People drive anywhere from 60 to 70 mph, bumper to bumper. I saw two people make mistakes that almost caused a horrendous pile up. Car A came down an entrance ramp, drove to the end of the merge lane, stop and then the driver turned to look to see if she could fit in. That was mistake one. Mistake two was when the driver of Car B, driving in the outside lane, stops in the driving lane to wave the driver of car A into traffic. When the tire smoke cleared, no one had hit anyone else. There were a couple of cars off the road and climbing the bank beside the road. I don't think the either driver of car A or B ever knew what happened behind them.

That Guy said:

I have nothing against slowing or stopping for wildlife...if it's safe to do so.

A girl here (think it was down east) stopped for some wildlife crossing the road in what I assume was heavy traffic. A couple on their motor bikes rear-ended her car and died.

I believe she went to jail for that. Negligent homicide I think. (Can't find the article, but it was national news for a while.)

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That incident happened in Montreal, she was found guilty for the two deaths she caused. Apparently she stopped completely in the 'fast lane' because there was no shoulder for her to pull off to. She wanted to rescue some ducks stranded at the concrete barrier in the median.

The two bikers who collided with her were speeding, so it wasn't a total one-sided crash, IMHO. But it was still very, very stupid, even if her heart was in the right place.

Revpeach said:

Around Milwaukee, during rush hour, we have a bypass that is three lanes in each direction. People drive anywhere from 60 to 70 mph, bumper to bumper. I saw two people make mistakes that almost caused a horrendous pile up. Car A came down an entrance ramp, drove to the end of the merge lane, stop and then the driver turned to look to see if she could fit in. That was mistake one. Mistake two was when the driver of Car B, driving in the outside lane, stops in the driving lane to wave the driver of car A into traffic. When the tire smoke cleared, no one had hit anyone else. There were a couple of cars off the road and climbing the bank beside the road. I don't think the either driver of car A or B ever knew what happened behind them.

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I've seen this. Never saw an accident happen because of it, but I have been stuck behind these dudes while merging before.

So annoying when you have a nice long merge lane so you can get up to speed, and some moron is poking along and then slows down or stops. Especially when there are plenty of spots to get into if they were paying attention long before we get to actually merging. Of course, if you aren't going close to the same speed as traffic it's exponentially harder and more dangerous to merge in. Not to mention that they then mess up everyone behind them, and eventually they slow traffic down on the main road too causing a huge traffic jam there.

It's then like a giant slinky. Everyone will have to slow down or stop near that point until traffic gets lighter which can be quite a long time. So everyone suffers because of one moron.

The entrance to I-57 North in Bradley Illinois was changed a few years ago and now you have to turn left at a traffic light to get on the interstate. While I was waiting for the light to turn green, the guy sitting in the lane to the right of me seemed to be in a hurry. He was slowly inching is way forward. When the light turned green he took off and didn't even notice the state trooper coming the other direction with his lights and sirens going. He turned anyways and the trooper had to lock up his brakes to avoid hitting him. I was sure that the trooper was going to T-bone him. The guy didn't even stop. I'm sure that if the trooper wasn't already on his way somewhere else, he would have pulled the guy over.

Must be a full moon or something. Had two this weekend...

1) I'm driving down a semi-residential street downtown when this dick shoots out from a back lane right across the road in front of us. Didn't even look or slow down. Think it was a newer Mustang or something. Honked at him and he just floors it down the back alley on the other side of the road.

2) I'm in the right lane of 2 lanes turning left at an intersection. We're just past the bend in the turn when someone in the left lane decides to cut over to the right lane. A few inches more forward and they would have taken my bumper off. That's like the worst place to change lanes as they can't see what's coming, plus they didn't look or signal. Some lady. Was totally oblivious. She gave us a surprised look in the mirror when we honked at her.
Most people need and use the left lane there, and ya, she needed to get back into it later.


I'm feeling the need to buy one of these for getting around town..
http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/0e/56/24/0e56241b270b95ebfa857380537e24d7.jpg

Today's darwin award candidate ...

Beige CUV, at a dead stop, in the center lane of highway 401, with traffic (including myself, and many tractor-trailers) swerving around them at full speed on both sides. There was NO apparent reason why they were stopped there. It's only a matter of time before someone (e.g. transport truck ...) either wasn't going to make it, or shoved someone else off the road trying.

DON'T STOP ON A MOTORWAY IN A LIVE TRAFFIC LANE ! ! !

GoFaster said:

Today's darwin award candidate ...

Beige CUV, at a dead stop, in the center lane of highway 401, with traffic (including myself, and many tractor-trailers) swerving around them at full speed on both sides. There was NO apparent reason why they were stopped there. It's only a matter of time before someone (e.g. transport truck ...) either wasn't going to make it, or shoved someone else off the road trying.

DON'T STOP ON A MOTORWAY IN A LIVE TRAFFIC LANE ! ! !

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Did they at least have the forethought to turn on their emergency flashers?

(And why does this thread always tell me there's another page of comments, but when I click on the link to go forward one page, it just takes me back to the same page I'm on? )

When I went by, the car just had the regular brake lamps on ... It appears that they just stopped, in the middle lane of the motorway, for no apparent reason. They must have done so seconds before I went past; everyone was going left and right including several transport trucks. I haven't heard anything on the news, so probably they got going - or the traffic slowed down (and jammed up) behind them without incident, but that was pure luck.

Tom Servo said:

(And why does this thread always tell me there's another page of comments, but when I click on the link to go forward one page, it just takes me back to the same page I'm on? )

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I thought it was just me. Mine has been showing that there are 2 more pages after this one. But clicking on either brings me back to the same page. It's been like that for a few weeks I think.

A glitch in the matrix. I blame the bad drivers.

Tom Servo said:

(And why does this thread always tell me there's another page of comments, but when I click on the link to go forward one page, it just takes me back to the same page I'm on? )

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Notice that there are quite a few posts quoting Mr. Mopar, but you don't see his actual posts? Another forum I'm on has the same issue - it's that the post count for purposes of determining the number of pages shown in the "pick a page" list includes deleted posts. Now for my stories of idiot drivers.

1) NJ, I80 westbound quite a few years ago, late at night (fortunately - since it meant there was no other traffic on the road, otherwise the idiot and any passengers he had would have been DEAD). I was in the right lane doing 55 when a car comes down the offramp at nowhere near highway speed. Despite there being a LONG merge lane, he hauls in front of me doing (my estimate) 20 MPH. I hit the brakes and take the second lane. Moron cuts me off AGAIN, so I take the 3rd lane (still on the brakes). Any guess as to what the guy does next? Fortunately by this time he's accelerated (and I've slowed down) enough that he's going faster than me. Takes a while for me to get up to cruising speed again.

2) Brooklyn NY around a year ago. I'm approaching a green light, and proceed through it. Guy on a BICYCLE coming from my left is visibly ticked off that I didn't stop to let him run the red. Seriously? I've got not only the right of way (green light), but the "right of weigh" (see explanation below) as well.

3) NJ, U.S. 1 southbound earlier this year. I was in the second lane (lots of traffic entering/leaving via the right lane), going fairly slowly (accelerating from a light that had turned green). Gas station must have had lower prices than everyone else, since traffic was backed up into the right lane. Brand new luxury sport-ute doesn't want to stop for the backlog, so they change lanes. Slight problem - I'm already there. Crunch! SUV driver gets charged with careless driving.

What do all of these have in common besides my encountering an idiot? Look at my sig to see what's in my garage. Look to the left of my post for fuel economy readings (there's a reason I get MUCH better fuel economy with gas than with diesel). I wasn't burning a drop of gasoline in any of these encounters - and in all 3, I had over 40,000 pounds of Darwin Awardscargo in my trailer.

rwolff said:

Notice that there are quite a few posts quoting Mr. Mopar, but you don't see his actual posts? Another forum I'm on has the same issue - it's that the post count for purposes of determining the number of pages shown in the "pick a page" list includes deleted posts. Now for my stories of idiot drivers.

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Aha! I knew there had to be an explanation for this quirk. Thank you. I hadn't even noticed his posts had been deleted.

rwolff said:

2) Brooklyn NY around a year ago. I'm approaching a green light, and proceed through it. Guy on a BICYCLE coming from my left is visibly ticked off that I didn't stop to let him run the red. Seriously? I've got not only the right of way (green light), but the "right of weigh" (see explanation below) as well.

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A guy on a bicycle in Brooklyn… That sounds like the start of some kind of hipster joke involving plaid, beards and kale.

Some jerk pulled out in front of me yesterday. He was pulling out of a gas station onto a service road and didn't bother to even glance for a second in my direction. Luckily I was only going about 20 mph or it would have been a crunch. When I blew my horn at him he gave the classic "ES&D" look (eat *ahem* and die) like it was my fault for having the right of way. Considering the condition of his pickemup truck, I feel lucky I wasn't murdered; he looked like he gave his last damn somewhere back in the Carter administration. The fully tattooed arm hanging out the window (a/k/a 'redneck air conditioning') didn't give off any happy vibes, either.

Had a guy in a Black Dodge truck do this recently...

I'm sitting in four lanes of traffic stopped at a light waiting to turn left...it's a dual turn lane.
So this guy comes driving up on our left...in the service lane. He passes everyone and then turns left on the red by cutting through the center meridian (which is grass and curb).
The light changed right then so I was able to turn left as well, and see him go through another red light, which changed a few seconds later so I was able to catch up as he got tied up a bit by traffic.
He then makes another left turn on a red light.
Usually I go right there, but I decided to follow him.
And then he made another left into a lot...and again on a red light.
So a total of 4 red lights, 3 of them left turns on a red.

The traffic was fairly busy too so this was doubly stupid and dangerous.

I had to wait at that light a bit, but when I turned in I found him still driving around the lot. I think he picked someone up...I assume a drug deal. He parked and changed spots once, but never got out. He also never noticed me.
I parked with him in sight in the row behind me and phoned the cops. Gave them a good description of the truck, license plate, and details.

They had a car in the area, but it didn't get there before the guy disappeared. I looked away for a few seconds and he was gone. I'm not sure if they ever found the guy, but I hope they did.

Saw someone this morning in an F-350 Dually towing a good size trailer miss their split/exit from 95N to 395N. Rather than go straight, hit the next exit, and double back (as 99.9% of people would)...this person elected to ride the shoulder for 1/4 mile until he was able to pull into a travel lane. I've never actually seen that before. "Balls of steel!" was the phrase that popped into my head, lol.

I saw someone cross three lanes of highway traffic to get into the opposite lane. Why he couldn't just wait for the next on/off ramp is beyond me.

I was driving from Edmonton to Fort St. John which is an 8-ish hour trip; I was leaving late at night. I was about 2 hours north of Edmonton and as I was passing a gas station I noticed someone on a quad, like a 2 wheel drive but lifted up quad, that pulled out on the highway behind me. I expected him to turn off some rural road but he stayed on the highway, and wasn't far behind. Then, he pulls up beside me with me going 110 kph and passes me, I couldn't believe it.

Edit: I meant to add something about people behind you with bright lights or led fogs, etc.

When I lived in Edmonton, I had an '02 Wrx hatchback that sat around the same height as my Golf does so during winter I had my side mirrors turned down a bit so I didn't see most trucks headlights. The odd time though, there would be some skippy who had led fog lights that just blinded me; like you really needed them in the city. So when I was at an intersection waiting for a green light, I would often play with my side mirror adjustment motors until I could deflect their lights right into their cab/eyes. Soon as we started moving I'd adjust them back, and lots of people would get the hint and shut them off or turn their brights off.

driving up to clearwater FL yesterday watched an elderly couple stop in the right lane on the very top of the sunshine sky bridge, driver gets out and starts taking pictures SMH.
this was at 1:45pm.

JohnnyCanuck.Comox said:

When I lived in Edmonton, I had an '02 Wrx hatchback that sat around the same height as my Golf does so during winter I had my side mirrors turned down a bit so I didn't see most trucks headlights. The odd time though, there would be some skippy who had led fog lights that just blinded me; like you really needed them in the city. So when I was at an intersection waiting for a green light, I would often play with my side mirror adjustment motors until I could deflect their lights right into their cab/eyes. Soon as we started moving I'd adjust them back, and lots of people would get the hint and shut them off or turn their brights off.

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I love it. I'll have to try that sometime.