My friend is the worst driver I have ever been in a car with

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

She goes the speed limit of 50km/h all the way to our destination. It’s really common knowledge that only the newbies drive at 50. Everyone else drives at 60 and the cops don’t even bother busting anyone. So, fine, whatever, if she’s overly cautious, it is her car after all. Problem is, when we go onto the bridge, it changes into 60km/h and she’s still driving at 50. Causing all the cars to pass us and swerve in front of her. It makes her brake hard when this happens because when they pass her, she gets scared.

She didn’t know the directions to our destination, so I gave them to her ahead of time. When I say “Change lanes when there aren’t as many cars” she immediately signals and changes lanes, even when there are twenty cars zooming by. She cut off about ten cars on our trip. All of them honked at her angrily. She braked hard when they honked because once again, they scared her.

She would change to the left lane when I tell her to change to the right. She would brake hard when she realized she was going 60 and not 50. She would not pay attention to what’s in front of her and brake hard when there is a red light.

I seriously thought I was going to die in her car. She’s a great friend, but next time, no thanks.

Has anyone else had these kinds of experience before or am I alone in this? Are you a bad driver like my friend?

2

::raises hand::

Actually, it wasn’t that bad, but she did 40 in a 25 zone. I yelled at her and she stopped, but I think it was just when I was in the car.

3

I used to work with a guy who was a seriously bad driver—hold your breath and pray kinda thing. the weird thing is, he always drove the handicapped van at work. did he think the clients couldn’t get any MORE impaired?

4

Well, not that bad, but a teacher at my high school would drive us to events, and at the age of 40 or whatever, still hadn’t grasped the idea of letting off the brake at the last moment so that there wasn’t a final lurch at the end. No, just push the pedal down until a stop is completely and totally effected.

5

When I was in high school I had a friend who had a bad habit of acting on any random impulses which happened to pop into his head. One night we were driving along a highway in his sub-compact (pacer / gremlin like, I forget the actual name of the car) anyway we are doing about 50 MPH when he decides to do an emergency brake 180. Fine. He executed a picture perfect 180 into the oncoming lane. Great. The problem was that about 2 seconds later the 18 wheeler which had been right on our ass went roaring past a couple of feet from my door. If he had screwed that up we would have resembled a crumpled pop can on the road. Dumb ass didnt even notice that the big rig was right behind us…and it was NIGHT. How do you not notice something like that?

I got out of the car and hitchhiked home. Never got back in a car with him again.

One time before that incident we were out shooting rabits (easy now…we were just kids and thats what we kids did back then) anyway 3 of us were standing in the back of a truck with our guns over the cab as we motored down a dirt road (same driver by the way…) we were approaching a T in the road and driver says…which way should I turn? I said to turn right. Everybody braces themselves for the turn. Oh, did I mention that he turned LEFT instead? At an insane rate of speed? 3 people, 3 guns fly out of the truck and land in a painfull heap in the dirt. Our genious driver makes it about a mile up the road before noticing that his cargo has been unceremoniously dumped.

Thank god we hadnt discovered alchohol yet…I dont think we all would have survived those years if alchohol had been on the scene…

6

So that’s who I was stuck behind in I-5 today. :smiley:

My old professor obviously hadn’t grown up driving dirt roads out in the Old West. We’d go flying down these dirt roads and she’d NEVER slow down sufficiently going into the washes, so we’d hit hard. Or she’d take gravelled corners to fast, or hit potholes doing 50. Yes, this is how we ended up with a very flat tire while working out in BFE, New Mexico. And in town she’d always creep RIGHT up to the little car in front at stop lights (this is driving a 3/4 ton extended cab 4x4 full size pickup).

7

I had a really good friend who swore that his stepfather was the Worst Driver in the World. Including everywhere–Italy, France, whatever. I thought he was just saying that.

Then I went to San Francisco on business and, while there, called his parents up, and they invited me out to dinner. (Ah! In San Francisco!) of course I said yes.

My friend did not lie. His stepfather was the Worst Driver in the World. He exceeded the speed limits in school zones and drove like a little old lady (he was a little old man) on the highways. He drove through stop signs without stopping and then stopped, unexpectedly, where there were none. Tailgated every time he got the opportunity, caused pedestrians to take flying leaps for shelter.

At one point I actually screamed! This was very embarrassing, because you don’t want to do this in the car of a good friend’s parents when they are taking you out to eat in San Francisco and providing a respite from a business thing that basically – well I won’t go into that. I said I was a little jumpy. I said the hills bothered me. My friend’s mother launched into this cheerful tale about once when she was 17 and learning how to drive, and she got stuck on a hill during a rare ice storm, and a trolley had to back all the way down the hill so she could back down the hill. It occurred to me that she could be driving, and probably ought to be.

This man boasted that he had never had an accident. I think he caused about three, just in the short time we drove from my hotel to the wharf and back. And did I want to go on a scenic drive, maybe go down the crookedest street in the world? Maybe across the bridge to Marin County? Lovely there. They’d love to show me around.

Ah, no. Gotta get back to the grindstone!

8

My grandpa is the worst driver I’ve ever seen. Being a passenger in his car is one of the scariest things I’ve ever done. Once he drove me down to Santa Cruz, and as many probably know there is a dangerous road down to Santa Cruz on which I’ve seen lots of accidents. He drove way over the speed limit, changing lanes insanely, basically driving all over the road way faster than the traffic. But that wasn’t the worst. At one point, he went the wrong way, but he didn’t turn around. Oh no. He actually drove at full speed over the divider! Now this is a pretty big divider, it’s got grass and plants on it, but we went right over, the car shaking like it would fall apart. I’ve never seen anyone drive like him.

9

I win this one.

My father in law is losing his sight. He is almost totally blind, yet he insists on driving everywhere. He always has to have someone along for the ride so they can let him know what’s going on - the passenger has to tell him if there’s a light coming up, whether to stop or pass it, and when it has changed from red to green. The guy can’t see if the light he is stopped at has turned green.
He also has to know if there’s a turn, if there’s a car in front of him, how fast it’s going, and when it has stopped.

You get the picture. He’s blind. And he drives. Ergo - Worst Driver Ever.

10

Orange Skinner and I have a mutual friend. We’ll call her Janet for the ease of this story.

First some background information on Janet. Janet is a bit dingy. She had some extra red paint, so she decided to add some flowers in one of her paintings. Half way through, she ran out of the red paint, and tried to re-mix the color. The color came straight from the bottle, and it took her a whole class to figure this out. She always complains that she spills paint on her clothing, yet makes wild hand motions when talking and accidentally brushes it up against her pants. That’s enough background on her. Her complete dinginess deserves it’s own thread. She also refers to everything as “Mr.”. Even panties.

The first time Orange Skinner and I got in a car with Janet, it was to see the LOTR movie. She got that confused with The Ring and we watched that instead. All went well until after we decided to eat. When we were pulling out of the parking space at the restaurant, she hits the Jeep in the space next to us. Scratched the Jeep noticeably, but no dents. She says “Oops, sorry Mr. Jeep!” and continues to drive. She heads off to the bank, and misses the turn. Turns into the gas station, and says “They have a connected parking lot.” They do not. I say to her “This is the carwash, not a driveway.” I was ignored and she continued. When she comes face to face with the carwash, she tries to back her way out of the driveway. She somehow ended up with both back wheels on the curb. She goes forward, and continues to back up. A few seconds later we are on the curb again, this time in several shrubs. She ended up getting out of there after that. and we went to another movie theater to see LOTR.

The second story was told to me by Janet. It was about 8:00 at night, in late May. Not dark yet, still very light out. She is driving home, and this car headed the other way starts honking their horn and flashing their lights at her. She slows down because she thinks there is a cop up ahead. Instead, she drives straight into a tree. It was still light out, there wasn’t a curve in the road, and she had slowed down. She still ran into the tree. The next day, she tells the story as if it was the tree’s fault.

Story three happened last week. I went to pick up Orange Skinner from her friend’s house. Janet was there, and she and Orange went to get the pizza. Janet says to her that the turn signals in the car don’t work, so every time she goes to turn, she says to the car behind her “Sorry Mr. Car, my turn signals don’t work”. Orange Skinner asked her why she didn’t use the hand signals, and Janet says she didn’t use them “because I don’t want to look stupid.”

11

Wow, I think that’s my first post that you actually have to scroll down to finish reading it.

12

I visited my friend’s farm in Kansas 10 years ago. His grandpa was alive then, living in the house he’d been born in, in 1900. He drove an automatic Ford pickup, but complained that it wouldn’t go slow enough, meaning that with the engine at idle, it still pulled too fast for him in many situations. His son laughed to me that they had to replace the brakes awfully often, as he would ride the brake continually to go slower.

13

A friend of mine that used to give me rides a lot was a panicked driver. Her parents didn’t let her drive very far or very often, but would allow her to take the car out to drive around with me. She was terrified. She’d moan “oh no, help me” or “oh no I’m scared we’re gonna die!” while on the road. Many times she’d drive about 10 miles out of the way because she was afraid to change lanes or make turns at the proper location. When we got to wherever it was we were going in one piece, she’d sigh with relief and say “Wow, we actually made it!” like she was surprised. I HATED riding with her.

I never got my liscence because my family’s car broke while I had a learner’s permit. I used to be nervous only about one thing: going on highways, which I have never done. I almost did it once and hit somebody, because my dad, who was teaching me how to drive, was confusing me. I became more stressed at driving as time wore on only because I would drive to my guitar lessons, which were stressful experiences for me, so I’d be more scared driving. Next week I have to start taking diver’s ed here because it’s the only way I can get a liscence where I live. Now I will not only be driving…but on the opposite side!

14

My ex has a friend who would at the very least be First Runner Up for Worst Driver Ever. She does everything mentioned in the OP and also straddles the white line or weaves between the two white lines – all in an attempt to “drive straight” – sometimes she’ll scrape the curb because she’s trying to “drive straight” and she figures that if she hugs one of the lines/curbs/shoulder the point of reference will keep her straight on the lane.

We believe that she has caused accidents, but none that involve her car – just other people making emergency manoeuvres to avoid hitting her. She is so oblivious though that she has never been aware that people around her have crashed, so she has never stopped (and so far, she she’s never been one of the impacting vehicles, no one has taken her plate number, so as yet the cops have never shown up at her door. But one day they surely will.)

My ex is thoroughy convinced that this girl is somehow magically blessed. Although her passengers have screamed in fear while she is driving, she’s never known why. We think that somehow, she will manage to wreak havoc but without ever coming to harm herself.

That is our theory. She is some cosmic force of chaos that has been unleashed on the world.

15

Oh my, I feel better about my barely adequate driving abilities now. Thanks, guys!

16

I once rode with a classmate to her apartment, just five minutes away from the university, to work on a group project. She “oopsed” her way through every traffic light going fifty or so. That’s when I formed my theory about Volvo drivers, which isn’t apropos.

My Dad has a story about driving with my Granddad: Grampy was stone deaf and a slow driver, weaving in and out of traffic lanes. At one point an ambulance came up behind him and tried to get around, sirens blaring, but were thwarted by his weaving. My dad tried to tell my grandfather to pull over and was shouted at: “What!? What?! Ah hell, you can tell me when we get home, I can’t hear a damn thing!!!”

17

Nearly every bad driver mentioned in this thread should have their keys taken away from them, forcibly if necessary. How, as the friend or relative of a “cosmic force of chaos,” can you people allow them to continue driving, knowing they’re causing accidents? Christ, karomon, you said he’s blind, and your family allows him to get behind the wheel!?! Cars aren’t toys, and not every one can handle the responsibility. Think of all the people hurt by his actions, even if it’s just a dented fender. Not to mention the risk to themselves.

Bad karma, guys.

18

I once worked with a guy who wasn’t a bad driver in the “likely to cause an accident” sense, but rather in the “I think I’m going to get car sick” sense. Kurt had the terrible habit of speeding up and slowing down, speeding up and slowing down, speeding up and slowing down. I don’t tend to get car sick, but riding with Kurt always made me want to puke.

19

Sounds like a sister-in-law of mine - she speeds way up even when we’re going along a series of short blocks that all have stop signs, then slams on the breaks at the sign, and repeat process. Passengers get jerked back and forth, and I was nauseous after the one ride I had from her.

Hearing stories from her other sisters, apparently their father never yelled at her during driving lessons like he did to them. Pressed for the reason why, since she was a worse driver than they were, he apparently said that he was worried she would freak out and they’d get in an accident, because she was such a nervous driver. :eek:

20

For a time, my father was the Worst Driver In The World. The last time I rode with him, my heart was in my mouth: he wandered all over the road, stopped abruptly, was too hesitant pulling out at intersections, etc. And that was just a short ride to the mall!

I refused to ride with him again; we always took taxis, which I paid for. Dad simply couldn’t operate the vehicle as he once could. Very sad.

Not long afterwards, my best friend and I secretly disabled his car by removing a part (and left the part with the landlady, in case the car needed to be moved). And not long after that, the Ministry of Transport pulled his license on doctor’s orders. It took him about six months to get used to the fact that he wasn’t capable of driving any more.

He later gave the car to charity; it was in quite good shape; he always took care of his stuff…