Hey road warriors!

I was driving to work one morning, going through all the little towns and borrows when we came upon some construction on one of the small roads.

You know the type, 10 cones to direct traffic around the work area with a flag person making sure people stop and go the right way.

There was a flag person directing the traffic to bare to the right which everyone was doing.... Well, except for the person in front of me who decided to use the right lane.

I still can't figure this one out. Flag person directs to right, no cars there. Not even a tight squeeze. And this person went left, which was the opposite traffic lane. Thankfully nobody was coming though.
Lol, you should have seen the look on the flag persons' face. That was I think the funniest part. It was like. Wtf are you doing look.

Lol, that and I came upon an accident where an older lady ran into a police officer at a stop sign. The cop was doing everything he could to not burst out laughing, it was just a fender bender.

lol, oh well.

Dan

.

There would be no way to narrow down a single incident of the dumbest thing I've seen on the highways; I couldn't even specify the ten dumbest, fifty dumbest, or a hundred dumbest. I live in the greater Boston area, home of the rudest, worst drivers in the country (I feel fairly well-qualified to judge; I have traveled to NYC, Baltimore/DC, Miami, Denver, LA, San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia, Raleigh, Dallas, and Phoenix).

On a daily basis I see suicidal tailgaters, red-light-runners, "me first" jerks passing others in the shoulder/breakdown lane, imbeciles cutting across several lanes of traffic to get off at an exit they're passing at 70 MPH, hotrodders who drive at 90, left-lane hogs who insist on riding at 50 mph, cell-phone-babblers who swerve all over the road, and the like. It goes without saying nobody can be bothered to use their signals, and when you encounter an accident or traffic jam on the highways (which is a constant occurrance) drivers frantically weave in and out of lanes desperate to get an extra 5 millimeters ahead.

And we don't just have the overly aggressive types! Nooo, we also have the slowpokes who can't seem to understand when a light turns green, a cop is waving them past a construction site, or that it's really OK to do the speed limit when passing a police car that has pulled someone else over. We have the old folks who mistake the gas pedal for the brake and plow through houses and food markets. We have the forgetful imbeciles, who should have been barred from reproducing, who leave their babies in hot cars or even back over them in the driveway, tragically. Routinely drunks are caught driving the wrong way on a highway (e.g. going southbound in a northbound highway) or crashing into parked police cars. You name it, we have all kinds here.

While I can't pick the dumbest thing I've seen, the most memorable incident took place last year. I was driving the speed limit on a frosty January Sunday and a jackass tried to pass me in the barely-plowed snowy shoulder of a residential street because he apparently felt he deserved to go faster. Since my kid was in the car, I can safely say that if this "person" had caused me to have an accident that resulted in my son being injured (or worse) it would have been the last mistake he ever made. And all so he could get to the store or a football game or whatever - so pointless, the poor manners of the drivers on these roads.

Never will understand how a place which is home to the country's brightest minds (Harvard, MIT, Boston College, etc.) has the dumbest drivers, but that's the case.

I am going to have to disagree on your vote for worst drivers. I am fairly confident that Norther Utah does in fact have the worlds worst drivers.

I have seen some of the dumbest behavior here.

Four way stops everywhere and no one knows how they are supposed to work.

No one ever uses their signals when making a lane change here (of course in their defense, if you do turn on your blinker, it is pretty much a guarantee the car(s) behind you in the target lane are going to speed up in an attempt to get in front of you before you actually make the lane change. So you best of just to zip over without 'inviting them to race').

That same behavior gets applied to merging, so as you can imagine merging is never particularly smooth.

And you'd think - since it snows here every year - people would remember from one year to the next that snow is slippery, and following bumper to bumper at 80 mph on the freeway isn't an intelligent thing to do.

I saw cop cam footage of a police pulled over to check on a woman with a a flat tire on the side of the freeway near Salt Lake City. Some doofus in a pick-up is pickup is rubber-neckin' and bumps into the car in front of him, which slowed down to rubber-neck. pick-up driver slams on brakes (after bumping car) and stalls pickup in middle lane of freeway. 30 seconds later a Semi truck (probably rubber-neckin' too), frantically swerves to avoid hitting stalled truck, clips truck, jacknifes, and voila a flat tire brings 5 lanes to a standstill. That's a whole lotta dumb in one place.

While I can't top the freeway story, I have to agree that you have some challenges there.

We go through the same thing every winter. EVERY one since I moved here.

It snows here. A lot. Every year. Absolutely every one. So why can no one remember the basics? Snow is cold and wet and SLIPPERY! And then there's ice. Ice is also cold and wet and slippery. These things taken together make tail-gating a good idea... how?

And we have the VERY same challenge with the indicator lights. Using them immediately issues a challenge to every driver within a 50 foot radius. Someone PLEASE help me understand!

We have geese here. They don't know the traffic laws and have little clue that your car is dangerous. When geese cross the road with their young flock, please(!) slow to a stop and let them cross. Don't try to change lanes to circle around them, it won't work! Every year, the same silliness!!! And don't get me started on deer!

I have a feeling we have a tie for "worst". But I have to give you points on the flat tire story. That IS a whole lotta dumb!

Soon after we bought a Winnebago motorhome in the early '70s (for my dad's "short" contract on Skylab), we read about the guy who put his fancy new motorhome on cruise control and when back to the fridge to get a soda. He thought it worked like cruise control in an airplane, so it got wrapped around a pole!

Got caught behind Canadians on Kings Highway in Myrtle Beach. Three-lanes each way, the major north-south thoroughfare, they are three-abreast and doing 30 in a 45 zone. Not a car in front of them for miles, but miles of cars behind them.

Driving on one of the freeways in southern California after a rare rain storm. The traffic in all lanes on the freeway is backedup becuase most people are driving slow because the road is wet. This idiot in a small truck went from the 3rd lane at speed across the front of me, in the second lane, almost hitting me. Across the front of another car in the first lane almost hitting him. And on to the shoulder. From there he proceeded to speed down the shoulder to bypass the traffic. Unforunately there was standing water on the shoulder. Which he hit at speed. He lost control went throgh a freeway sign and stopped upside down off the freeway. Luckily he didn't hit anyone else in the process. He gets out of the truck so is alright. Several of us stopped. And rather than have sympathy for him, yelled how stupid he was and were all be witnesses for when the police arrived.

By the way. I have driven in many countries. The worse place I have found to drive is southern Califirnia. Those guys just can't drive, especially in the rain. Never seen so many people who manage to spin out at low speeds when it is wet.

I work in a town in Southwest Missouri that is a huge tourist town known for the theaters that the blue hairs like to go to. Well, it recently got a roundabout installed right in front of the hospital where I work. It's great fun to watch the idiots drive it. The best was the guy in the giant Winnebago who 20 yards before the roundabout started driving on the left side of the road so that he could get on the opposite side of the concrete median and proceded to drive the roundabout clockwise AGAINST traffice while he honked and flipped everyone off. The only thing better was the einstein's (a train of about 5 trucks and cars) that did the lemming imitation and decided to follow him. What's so hard about "when in doubt, stay on the right, and keep circling 'til you figure it out".

What was especially funny is that it was extremely busy, and you come up on it from the top of a hill. He paused, watched everything for about a minute and proceded to do the exact opposite.

That's why hospitals no longer say that a person is in for an MVA (Motor Vehicle Accident). There are no "Accidents" only MVI's (Motor vehicle Incidents)

I watched a guy on southbound 280 (Bay Area, Ca.) zip through lanes in his new BMW. He almost hit me to cut me off (this is in traffic). I watched this dumb**s do this to a dozen people. Finally he cut over 2 lanes and forgot to straighten out in the lane. He just kept going, on the overpass guard rail. Watched his new car jump a few feet, then land back down -- totalled.

I also watched a guy cut off a semi. Not bright... He came soo close that as he was cutting off the semi, the semi bumper made his porsche rear move 5 feet. After he straightened out he yelled at the semi driver and pulled him over (shouting, cussing, etc.). I thought it was hilarious, especially after we pulled over as well (about 6 cars) to stand on the truck drivers side. The porsche guy was pissed, and didnt think that he did anything wrong (I guess he thought that he and his car had a right to do anything, and everyone must bow down and accept it). I bet his insurance went up.... messed up his rear end and probably alignement and/or frame.

I69 is the route to and from Canuckville, and all day long I see both residential drives and plenty of rigs. Green means GO grandpa!

These trucks are usally not a real big issue until you get about six of them together and the one at the end decides the others are going a half mile per hour slower than he wants to go. so at this half mile per hour faster than the other five semis and 200 miles later this damn truck stops blocking the two lane road.

You can't tell me they don't sit there laughing their a$$es off at how pissed all the cars are that want to go the legal limit for CARS which is 15 mph faster!

Then stick your tongue in the side of your cheek like I did when typing it.

Of course i am joking, that's why I went on to only be able to sigh at teh days traffic. No Canadians are NOT better drivers, and from what I am told, folk in Montreal are actually Canadian.

I spend a fair bit of time there, and yes they all have Canadian flags too, I suppose they really are.

We have crappy drivers everywhgere. Funny how you get used to them though. People from here come back from England and say they drive like maniacs. But in England, traffic literaly flying through narrow city streets is completely normal, that's just how you drive. It's the roundabouts that really screw people up though, they get stuck driving in circles for ages until they learn to just butt in and move over when needed.

As for the wheelchair, good for you!

I was told I would never walk again once, I proved them wrong. I was actually not supposed to wake from teh coma I was in either, or be able to use my arms if I did. Funny but that same story goes for quite a few people I know. The doctor says you wont walk and you bust your butt just to prove him/her wrong. I suppose that's why they say it.

Like I say to my mum all the time, "I was supposed to be a parapalegic, but I am scared of heights so I changed my mind."

We get rain for our winter, after 1mm has fallen there are car accidents all over the city, as if people aren't used to it?!

But compared to Montreal, we have overly courteous drivers. They will let ANYONE in front of them anytime, they will slam on teh breaks if a pedestrian is anywhere near a curb, no matter if at the corner or not, they dawdle along singing to the radio etc.

Just WAAAAY too laid back and slooow for me.

Our highway maximums are higher than yours, so in teh US Canadians get pulled over all the time for driving at Canadian highway speeds. In most cases we just dawdle along instead and avoid the hassels.

In your case I think you are talking about tourists or seniors with nothing to do but idle along anyway.

.

At various times I've seen drivers masturbating, reading papers they were bringing home from the office and/or newspapers, applying makeup, shaving, and of course the innumerable idiots yakking on their cells. But the two dumbest episodes were as follows:

1) I live in Minnesota. One winter day I was on my way to work, and traffic was horrendous as it had snowed all night and was still snowing during the morning rush. Freeway traffic was stop and go, mostly stop. Some guy in a huge pickup with duallies was ticked off that traffic wasn't moving, and decided he'd show us all how to drive in a snowstorm. He pulled off the freeway onto the shoulder, punched it and deliberately drove into the ditch between the freeway and a frontage road, apparently thinking he'd cut across and bypass us all on the frontage, or possibly thinking his penis-envy rig could navigate the ditch. The ditch was full of snow and deeper than this guy must have thought. He hit the snow at some speed, and threw up a huge white plume. When the snow settled, his truck was buried up to the windshield in snow, stopped dead and going nowhere. I'll bet it cost him a bit to have it towed out. I got a huge laugh out of that, and didn't mind the rest of my commute, slow traffic and all.

2) The 2nd event nearly got me killed. I was on a 2-lane highway headed from the twin cities to a town in southeastern Minn. I was behind about half a dozen vehicles, the lead vehicle being a semi w/trailer who was being kind of pokey. I waited until we were on a long flat stretch with no oncoming traffic visible, but no one ahead of me was willing to pass the truck. I had what seemed plenty of runway ahead of me, plus a couple of gaps between vehicles that were plenty big enough to duck into if I did encounter an oncoming vehicle before passing the truck. So, I pulled into the left lane and punched it. I got to the point where I was even with the car that was first behind the truck, when an oncoming car topped a small rise in the near distance. I decided it would cut things a bit too close to try to pass the truck, so I made for the gap between the truck and the next car. The SOB in the car gunned it and cut me off, refusing to let me in behind the truck. The oncoming car was getting awfully close, flashing his lights and partially pulling over to the side. I finally slipped in right behind the car who cut me off, just in the nick of time, heart pounding. The SOB and I exchanged shaken fists and middle fingers, and I was so angry I wanted to follow him wherever he was going, even if it was the next state, just to beat the hell out of him. But, I had an appointment to keep and eventually calmed down enough to just let him go. What a jerk - besides nearly getting me and the guy in the oncoming car killed, we would probably have taken out the line of cars behind the truck too. What possesses people to do things like that I'll never understand.

the company I work for is industrial and so we hire a fleet of drivers. A real hit and miss on my opinion on them. Some are sharp as a tack, others are as bright as a small appliance lightbulb. (just like in any other field).

I do have great respect for what these drivers do, and will flash the lights to give them the all clear, or give them some room if traffic is merging from the right.

Just the damn snail races get me something awful!

I have the same issue with "cruisers" that are in a hurry. If I see someone flying up behind me, I get over and let them by. If I see them crawl up on me over a 20 minute span, there is no way in hell I am going to move over and wait another 20 minutes for them to get by me. If I stay in the left, they will actually accelerate to get around quickly.

Cruise control is horrible when two assclowns match up side by side and miles behind them waiting to get by.

Oh yeah, while I am at it, the dumbass that feels they are going to lose the race as you start to pass them on the left, so they have to speed up?

I don't condone road rage, but I sure do understand it! :D

.

who's transversed this USA more than I care to admit, I've seen way too much to list here. I've also heard about a lot more from other truckers.

The worst experience I had as an OTR Driver was when a woman in a little bitty car pulled onto the Interstate in front of me and STOPPED!!!...to let the person in front of her in also. There was absolutely NOTHING I could do to avoid hitting her. I was pulling piggybacks (the kind that are made up of semi-tractors stacked piggyback style where the front one pulls three tractors behind it like a train). You don't do ANYthing in those very fast! It's not like driving a regular tractor-trailer at all except that you're driving a tractor. The other three tractors ARE your trailer[b]S[/b]! Anyway, this gal pulls out in front of me and [b]STOPS![/b] I actually lost sight of her tiny car in front of the long nosed conventional I was driving. I had a big rig next to me (so I couldn't swerve, and even if I [u]could[/u] have swerved I would have dumped semi-tractors all over the highway since pigs have such a high center of gravity) and a big-rig behind me. I knew that if I even TRIED to stop I'd cause an even bigger mess than hitting that car. The instant I lost sight of that idiot's car in front of me I braced on the steering wheel HARD and literally closed my eyes waiting for impact to happen. A split second later when it didn't happen I opened my eyes to see the front of this woman's little car [b][u]ZOOMING[/u][/b] out from in front of my truck. I can only guess what she thought when she obviously got a look at my grill in her mirror! I bet you could not have slipped a sheet of gold leaf between us!!! The guy beside me got on the CB while just shaking his head in amazement at what he just saw and said, simply, "It takes all kinds." That was the day I made up my mind that if they're stupid enough to take on something a LOT BIGGER than they are then they deserved what they get!!!!

A story I heard was substantiated by cops and the news was when a woman (again in a little bitty car) attempted to pass a semi-tractor-trailer and wound up [b]UNDER[/b] the trailer!!! She was putting on make-up while driving down the Interstate! Because of this she didn't judge correctly when she pulled back into her (and the rig's) original lane. The driver of the rig was a seasoned driver of over 30 years OTR. He had never had anything like that happen to him before and had not heard of such a thing. He knew she was there and that if he tapped his brakes, she would see the brake lights on the tractor come on, panic and stop causing him to run over her car with his fully loaded trailer. They went a bit of a distance while he was praying she'd have the sense to just swerve out from under his trailer but NOOOOOOOOOO!...She DID 'discover' [u]where[/u] she was, panicked and [b]SLAMMED[/b] on her brakes!!! He ran over the car with both axles of his trailer. It took the rescue squad over eight hours to cut her from her car. NOW, do you believe she walked away with only major bruises and minor cuts????? Yep, it's true!!!

Now you have a couple incidents of TRUE Deliberate Stupidity to compare what you see with. ;)

What's WORSE is when they think that they're [i]"good[/i] enough to [i]handle[/i] a minivan, they buy SUVs and drive THEM the EXACT same way they did the minivan!!! :|

I DARE you to reach out and touch ANYthing that has NOT been ON a TRUCK in SOME form at least ONCE on it's way to you....

UUUUHTTT!!!!....even your lawn and landscaping has been on a truck!!!

Even in a FOUR-Wheeler ( A CAR! ) that stretch is MURDER!!! Been there, done that, too, but in a '76 Mazda Pickup (LOADED with piggybacking [see my last/MAIN post for definition of '[i]piggybacking[/i]' equipment).

:^0 :^0 :^0 Now THAT is FUNNY!!!!!!! :^0 :^0 :^0

Poetic JUSTICE! ;)

Edited to get the LAUGHING smilie RIGHT :8}

BTW: Nick you are waaay toooo funny! "RM"> Sigmund Freud!!! LOLOL!

more or less, but probably more.

What hauling piggybacks. You do NOT drive THEM fast like you can pulling a trailer!!!!!

In the news we sometimes hear about a fool in the USA handing out some roadrage with a hand gun. Now this is a case where driving a perentie about would be a good idea. Imagine the look on such a fool, he pulls his pistol, and takes a shot at your car, just to watch it bounce off the Kevlar armour. Now that would piss him off, but likely so surprise him, that he'll have a pileup, preferably a single vehicle one.

The closest I've seen to road rage here, was a young woman nearly casued an accident by driving fast into a parking space, while an older driver was slowly backing into it. She got there first, but it cost her a lot of rubber stopping, and then she nearly got hit by the reversing vehicle.

A group of us on the sidewalk had seen it all, we gave her appropriate looks when she got out of the vehicle. She glared at us, and snarled "Get F***** the lot of you." Oh what a chance, I couldn't help myself, I said "Thanks but no thanks, we all prefer to f*** someone pretty, smart, and friendly - you miss out on all three." My friends started laughing as she went red and started towards me. Then a cop walkes around the corner and tells her to move along. he'd not seen anything, but came down the street after hearing the tyres screech.

I remember I was driving my old 70 Maverick on rainy day and as a kid, I liked to downshift when coming to a stop and popping the cluch to make the rear tires skid. Well, I was coming to a stop light and the street was a crowded four-lane with a left and right turn lane, making a total of four lanes in my direction. I was in the lefthand turn lane and downshifted and popped that clutch. The rear tires hydroplaned and I did a 360 skid to the right and ended up in the right turn lane going in the right direction. I didn't hit any other cars and it looked like I did it on purpose, so I made the right turn as if nothing had happened and went around the block.

Hi all,

The worst thing I have seen is a female driver in a Toyota Landcruiser 4 x 4 take on a B-Double Truck at 100 kph on a freeway.

You see here's this B-Double coasting down the freeway sitting on the speed limit when out from nowhere come a female driver in a 4 x 4 landcruiser doing a U-turn across the medium strip and pull out in front of the truck. Now the distance between her and the truck was only 100 metre's. Little can I say the driver of the truck must have SH*& himself as all wheels locked up and him and his truck went scatting down the road, then into the next lane and right on past her. And guess what she did next???? Thats right folks, Gave the truck driver the bird and started to veberly abuse the driver.

I think that is about the worst I have seen so far. If for some reason you would like to see a pic of a B-Double truck which might I add run on most roads here in Australia then just go to www.yahoo.com.au click on the Images button located in the search box and put in the words - B Double Trucks. Once you have seen the pics, then you will know why I have allotted this female driver as the worst one I have seen so far. PS. By the way, the B-Double truck was a LPG Gas tanker fully laiden.

Have fun and talk soon.

While driving on I-94 between Chicago and Detroit at 80mph. I was really bored.

I'm currently working at Dairy Queen (yeah, very technical, but whatever) and recently had a woman in the drive-through window who was talking non-stop on her cell phone and drove away with an ice cream cone in her other hand. I have no idea how she was steering the car. Even more ridiculous was that she had a passenger with her who could have held the phone or the cone!

The lady who tried to avoid the deer was making a judgment based on maintaining control of her vehicle. Her responsibility and instinct was to avoid the crash which is correct. She was not obliged to hit the deer, damage her vehicle, possibly injure herself, and risk losing control of her vehicle.

The driver of the vehicle behind her has the responsibility to maintain a safe stopping distance. Yes, large trucks require a longer stopping distance but that has to be factored in by that vehicle's driver. The facts of life are that all types of vehicles must share the same roads.

Whenever we drive we have to expect the unexpected which is why it helps if auto drivers observe the Three-Second Following Rule.

This is it. Focus on a stationary spot ahead on the road like an overpass or sign. When the car immediately ahead passes it, begin counting "one-thousand, two-thousand, three-thousand". If you pass the same spot before reaching three-thousand (three seconds) then you're too close. Back off and leave more space. It it's raining, increase the time to four seconds, snow to at least five.

The AARP offers an excellent eight hour Driver Safety Program for $10 focused on people aged 50 and above and is open to anyone. It includes the three-second rule and other advice. One additional benefit is a three-year insurance reduction in many states.
www.aarp.org/families/driver_safety

Hi!

The stupidest, dumbest thing I saw was a 4-wheeled show bank... A chevy Lumina van (known for it's 4 foot long, 30 degre windshield...) was rolling on a street, with about 18 inches of snow on the top.

Okay; the van was rolling about 30-50kph, the snow didn't fly off due to speed, the windshield was clean.... until the guy applied the brakes to stop at a traffic light.

The snow began to melt on the top as the heater, well heated up. The snow got slippery. Imagine what happenned? All the snow slided, and _stayed_ on his windshield. 18 inches of it.

I was in a bus, just back of this van. I began laughing, as much as the bus driver , and the guy in the van just put his wipers at full speed, trying to get rid of that foot-and-a-half thick of white stuff...

The bus driver almost wet his pants laughing.

Bye!

In my 13 years as a ?hockey Mom?, I have driven from the Midwest to the eastern US and Canada numerous times, with my daughter, in my tiny car, no radar detector, usually starting my trips after midnight on a Thursday or Friday.

At that time of day I usually shared the road with mostly big rigs and an occasional car. I have a tremendous amount of respect for road warriors. As a Midwesterner (flatland driving) I respected them even more the first time I was in mountainous country and saw my first ?Runaway Truck Entrance?.

I have learned to ?read? their driving habits. If the warriors are pushing the speed limit, it is clear sailing ahead. If they are doing the limit, I better do the same.

I have had them visually signal me to hazards up ahead, change lanes and pull in front of me to save me from some hazard up ahead, slow down and signal me to get in front of them when some idiot was tailgating me in dangerous driving conditions etc. I have seen them change lanes and block reckless, speeding idiots to keep the rest of us safe on the road. One guy, God Bless him, was in the lane to my right, rolled down his window in the pouring rain and told me to haul @@s, I did so without questioning why. I then tuned to a local radio station and heard there was a tornado headed for the stretch of road we were on. Ten minutes later, the radio station was announcing that the tornado had crossed the road where I would have been if not for the trucker. I could go on forever with stories, but just let me say that I feel safer on the road with a bunch of big rigs than I do with the ?non professional? drivers.

Ah yes. I used to drive down NY State Route 55 through southern Dutchess County (yes, that's the spelling) and pass by the sign for County Route 69. I don't think a sign lasted a week before someone would swipe it. They may have ended up changing the route number.

It should be a capital crime to interfere with highway signs -- theft, graffiti, shoot, obscure, or attach bumper stickers. People have died because important signs (e.g., STOP) are stolen or defaced.

If I had a nickel for every time I wish I had a remote-control rooftop turret with a quad .50 with which to deal with some brainless jackass...

It's illegal to drive in rain/snow without [b]headlights[/b] (taillights must be on, too, so DRLs are inadequate). Maybe 2/3 of drivers obey the law. It's illegal to drive without [i]all[/i] glass being cleared of snow, [i]and[/i] snow removed from the roof (in case of quick stop...). Again, maybe 1/3 of drivers flout the law. It's illegal to chat on a cell phone -- maybe 3/4 of drivers ignore the law. It's illegal to drive without a seatbelt -- oh, well, you get the picture.

Too bad it's also illegal to shoot idiot drivers. Clean 'em off the highways before they take some innocent people with 'em. Good thing I'm unarmed while in the car, or I'd be going through maybe a dozen rounds a mile...

...as Knights of the Road. In my experience, most [i]have[/i] been safe, courteous, and helpful, but there have a [i]few[/i] who should be tied up and shot. I guess if you're a moron or a jerk, you ain't gonna live very long trying to manhandle that 18-wheeler. The bigger the truck, the less forgiving it is of stupid moves. I can still remember a couple -- a chemical tanker drifting down I87 at 70 mph where the driver must have had 2 hours sleep in the last three days. He was hitting the rumble strip on the right, drifting over two lanes, hitting the left rumble strip,... back and forth. I waited until he drifted right again and charged around him. I didn't want to be around when he spilled his load. The other was some 18 year old driving a dump truck down I290 while towing a steamroller on a trailer. He was having too much fun in the cab chatting with his buddy and bopping to the radio to notice he'd blown one rear tire (tread gone, just the sidewalls spinning through space) and the other was smoking. I waited for an opening and blew past him -- I didn't want to be involved in the mess he was about to make...

...I would decree a law where [i]every[/i] motor vehicle had to have its headlights (and taillights) wired [b]on[/b] full time. Most drivers are just too stupid to turn them on when needed -- so that [i]others[/i] can see [i]them[/i] in reduced visibility. Just can't get that fact to sink in.

Speaking of clearing windows, I learned that one the (almost) hard way one chilly autumn morning. I lived on the shore of one of NYC's reservoirs, which hadn't frozen yet. My car had been parked outside overnight facing West, so the windshield was really cold that morning. I started up, pulled out and started heading down a road along the shoreline. Rounded a corner facing East, directly into the rising Sun -- whiteout! The windshield had picked up a very thin coating of frost which rendered it 100% opaque. Fortunately it was a fairly low speed road and I wasn't near the next sharp curve. I had to look out my driver side window at the center stripe to stay on the road while I braked (no right shoulder -- just guardrail and long drop-off). Good thing no one was behind me. Lesson learned -- park facing East, and turn on the defroster even if the windshield is clear!

I'm not sure if [b]DE[/b] is confused, or just engaging in wordplay, but his references to the Morris Mini Van are [i]not[/i] what everyone else is referring to as "minivan".

IIRC, Chrysler invented the minivan in the early 80s. Take a "station wagon" ("estate car" in Britspeak) and mate it with a tradesman's "van" (e.g., Ford Econoline) and you get either a station wagon on steroids or a shrunken van. It looks and handles somewhere between a car and a real van, and sounded the death-knell for station wagons. Now they've been largely abandoned for SUVs (but the drivers are no brighter, I'm afraid).

Just in case anyone was confused...

She was probably thinking like I do.

Having lived in the Santa Cruz hills above the Bay Area, I've seen several cars TOTALED and people injured from hitting deer. They ain't light - I got told once that the average Bambi weighs in at about 450 lbs. I'd have braked too, AND sweated it on that freeway. My only question is - why was the truck drive so close to her that he had to jam on the brakes that hard?

Definitely buttheads for blocking all the lanes.

[i]and doing 30 in a 45 zone.[/i]

A thought: aren't Canadian speedometers marked in km/h (not mph)? Maybe the drivers saw "45" and were going 45 [b]km/h[/b], which is about 28 [b]mph[/b]? They still need to engage their brains...

When stationed on Guam a few (?) years ago I was driving down the freshly rained on road when a dog ran out in front of me. Instinctively I hit the brakes and although only traveling about 40 mph the car started skidding sideways. Guam roads you see, use coral instead of limestone for base, and when it gets wet it secretes a soap like enzyme. A soon as it started to twist I abandoned any ideas of missing the dog, (who got out of the way just fine) Attempts to control the car never took as the rear bumper was plowing down the ditch on one side of the road, then the other, all in slow motion. The real entertainment was all the mud and water being thrown up by the rear bumper and fenders was being thrown in the open windows. When it stopped, my passenger and I were covered with mud, and there was about another six inches deep mud oozing down the seats, doors and dash to collect on whatever horizontal surface was there. A military police officer pulled up behind us, having watched the automotive acrobatics, and asked if we were OK, but could not keep from laughing out loud at the sight of us sitting in the front seat in our dress blues covered in mud.

Well, right now the "Oddly enough" page on Yahoo News has two examples of extreme automotive stupidity: a guy in the UK is doing time for blowing up the camera that caught him speeding, and as for the other story from Slovakia, well Reuters headlined *that* one "Auto-eroticism undoes driver" and I ain't gonna give details here.

I've seen many idiotic drivers, but these two news items exceed anything I've actually seen.

I recently entered heavy traffic on a local street with trsffic so busy that I had trouble entering. Just beyond I saw a woman with young children in the car back out of a vertically parked position into that traffic with cell phone in her ear.

Several years ago I was driving a truck through OKC in moderately heavy traffic. I was driving in the right lane about 45 mph and for once the right lane was moving faster than the left. I noticed a car driving erratically in the left lane ahead of me, swerving side to side just barely crossing the yellow and white lines. I didn?t want to try passing this ?drunk? so I held back a car length or two.

The driver eventually resumed normal driving so I decided it was safe to continue on. When I was parallel to the driver I looked down into the car to get a look at the ?drunk!? Low and behold, I looked down to see a very nice looking woman driving with her knees, jeans and knickers pulled down, and just in time to see her remove her maxi-pad, and toss it in the passenger seat. She replaced the used pad, started pulling her jeans back up [still driving with her knees], and the swerving started all over again. I accelerated to get away from her and got caught by the next red light. She pulled up next to me; I couldn?t resist, I leaned out the window and said to her with a lecherous grin, ?great show back there!? She turned as red as the traffic light and sped away as soon as the light changed.

I remember one Friday evening driving north on I684 out of White Plains. It must have been a tough week for a couple of buttheads, 'cuz they was playing chicken at 50 to 60. They were trying to run each other off the road, going across three lanes and both shoulders, and the rest of the traffic was backed up behind them. Good thing I didn't have a gun with me, or that would have been two dead mofos.

Ah, I684, what delightful memories that label brings back. Six inches of hardpacked snow after a storm, and watching in the rear-view mirror as three cars did 720s behind me. New car carrier taking the exit onto I287 too fast and rolling over, crushing flat every car he was carrying (luckily no one else involved). Big sign with flashing lights warning trucks to slow way down -- no effect. Buttheads driving down the shoulder to get around traffic jams, and me wishing I had a cannon pointed out the passenger window. The road was a parking lot at least twice a week. I don't miss it a bit!

had panel vans around since the 1960's and before. The early ones were like a stationwagon with a slightly raised roof. Over the years the roof got higher and higher.

The Morris Mini Minor, had a 2 seater van version called a Mini-van. I used to drive one, front wheel drive, light as a feather, and cornered like cheater on steroids. Literally spin on a dime.

Thanks for the explaination, from the earlier comments I was picturing something like a short wheel base version of a tarago like van.

Bill & I met in basic training at Lackland AFB, then went to advanced training at Keesler together and received assignm3ents to March AFB, CA. While he was home on leave after school, he was driving his father's truck back from Calumet, MI (yes, he was a yooper!), came around a bend and hit a moose at 45 mph. Took the moose's legs right from underneath it. The moose landed on the cab, picked itself up and limped away, the only survivor. They said Bill never even got his foot off the gas.

Edit: The '3' is silent

I grew up in Schoharie County (northern Catskills). If I remember correctly, they never even marked County Route 69 for that very reason.

was last fall. Drove up through rain and yuk, hit NY, and the first three state troopers I saw had their wipers going gangbusters and not a headlight in sight. Posted speed limit on the Thruway north of Poughkeepsie is 70, everybody is at 80, and the Thruway patrol pass us all. Doesn't only happen in NY, either. I've seen the same thing in every state I've driven in.

Has anybody else considered that if the State Police/Troopers/Highway Patrol obeyed the traffic/driving laws, everybody else might, too?

Back in the 80's my step dad got a hold of a 66 chevy short/narrow pickup. My mom had wrecked her 71 buick skylark stationwagon the winter before because some idiot stopped to fast. Mom was on black ice and it was hit the idiot, hit the car coming in the opposite lane or hit a pipe filled with concrete. She chose the pipe.
The truck had been a old farm truck. Back bummer was a 4inch wide piece of channel iron. The front bumper was stock but had home made cattle guard bolted to it. The old straight 6 that was in it had a cracked block. So my step dad pulled the 6 and the old 3 speed tranny out. Then pulled the 350/4barrel motor and trans out of the buick. You can guess what he did next heheh. That was one sick truck.
Mom had had the truck for about a year and we had moved to Pittsburg, Tx. The town was so small it did not even qualify for a Walmart back then. You had to go to the next town over (Mount Pleasant). The road between both towns was a 2 lane. We where on are way there when this dumb Bi*** got behind us and started tailgating. You could not even see the front of her car over the tailgate(6ft bed).Mom was doing about 60-65 according to her speedo (it was off because the truck was still setup for the old 3speed.) She was really doing 50-55 the speed limit at that time. Nothing mom could do would get that woman off her butt. She tried slowing down speeding up. The woman could have passed us 10 times over. Finally mom slowed down and pulled off the road. The woman finally passed us. By this time Mom was pissed. That woman had been tailgating us for a good 5 miles. As soon as the car got past mom put her foot in that old truck. Next thing that woman knows she is doing 80 down the hwy seeing nothing but the hood and cattle guard of that truck in her rear view mirror. Mom chased that woman almost all the way to Mount Pleasant.
I am sure that woman never tailgated anyone after that.

You have always been able to get a station wagon. in the US. I don't think any of the European companies ever stopped making them, and even the Big Three American automakers offered station wagons in one or two smaller models.

You can get a "station wagon" from 18 different manufacturers for the 2007 model year. http://tinyurl.com/q9u6k

One of the new station wagons, of course, is the Dodge Magnum, introduced by what I think is some of the funniest advertising dialog ever.

[Scene]
Two cars side-by-side at a stoplight: a sports car and a funny-looking station wagon. The light changes and they're off! The sports car gets the jump, but the station wagon leaves it in the dust. At the next light, the sports car pulls in next to the station wagon, the driver rolls down the windows and asks "Dude, what have you got in that thing?"

Station wagon driver rolls down his window, looks in the back and replies "Some 2x4s, a couple of 2x6s, a guitar, an amp, and some cinder blocks."

The ad closes with the announcer: "The new Hemi-powered Dodge Magnum..."
[/Scene]

Edit: added link

From the original post: [i]What's the most stupid thing you've ever seen or, for that matter, done while you were behind the wheel. [/i] That could include those back seat experiences, since they took place "behind" the wheel. ;\

The first time I was stationed in Germany (Bremerhaven), we amused a whole bunch of Germans on July 4th one year. Nine or ten of us in a Chevy shortvan pulled a Chinese fire drilll at the main intersection by the train station. Piled out through every door, lit strings of firecrackers, ran around the van screaming "Happy Birthday, USA," and piled back in. :^0

Yes, alcohol was involved, but not on the driver's part. B-) European police take a much more strict view on DUI than do American police.

Cousin of the lady I carpool with is in Stanford hospital in a coma at this moment, with most everything from the waist up broken. He's lucky to be alive - all thanks to NOT stopping for a deer. Actually, CHP figured the deer jumped in front of him, & he never had a chance.

The lady wasn't just breaking to save the deer's rear.

Steve G.

.

.

is on I-75, when you get off at Big Beaver road, exit 69.

Life is good. :D

Edited out