I just read the thrad about terrible drivers on the road. I have noticed on car forums that most people have an attitude like, "we are far better drivers than the general public."

Most of the time, this might be true.

But in this thread, I think we should share OUR most embarassing and dangerous driving moments.

I will start.

When I first got my license, I drove like a maniac. I had my share of close calls caused by my recklessness, and just plain bad luck.

On the freeway, a couple years ago, I was cruising at 60-65mph in the slow lane very late at night. I was planning on merging into the fast lane. I checked my rear view, my side mirror, and glanced over my shoulder. I guess I waited a second or two before merging, without rechecking. I start slowly merging over, with my blinker on, and "whhhhheerr!", I hear tires squealing. Apparently, their was another car in my blind spot. I got a foot or two into his lane. He almost lost control of the vehicle as he swerved to avoid me. Whats worse, his car was full of passengers.

To this day, I do not know how I missed him. My guess is he was a good distance behind me, and accelerated hard to pass me before I merged.

And most embarassing of all, was an ebrake slide that ended in me sliding my car onto some grass. Nothing was damaged, but boy, was I pathetic.

I have learned so much in the past years driving, and sometimes, I can't believe some of the stupid things I have done. I am thankful no one, including myself, was ever hurt by my actions. Still, I have a dirty concious, and beat my self up all the time. Now I am one of the most conservative, defensive drivers I know. I havent taken my car over 65 or tore up a mountain road in a long, long time.

Now, driving safely is much more rewarding and satisfying than a few seconds of wreckless behavior. I guess I should be thankful I have a enourmous easily damaged upsetable concious.

I never drove like a maniac but I don't consider myself a good driver either, well not great. I spend most of my time watching for others when I drive then for myself. So far I have avoided many many difficult situations, too many to list or even remember. Yet, I failed my road test cause a soccer mom passed me doing 70km in a 50km zone when the road was covered with snow and in a school zone while I was doing 35. How unfair, I bet she passed the road test on the first try.

xp

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1985 190E 2.3L - a constant project.

Got license at 15. Drove family car into bank.

Not a roadbank, a money bank.

It sorta jumped out in front of me...yeah. I was driving with Morgan Fairchild...yeah, that's the ticket....and she....

Botnst

If there is one thing every American has in common, its that we all think we are 'good' drivers.

I still make mistakes. Had a close call the other week on the Beltway when I didn't check my blindspot totally before merging.

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'90 300SE 298k
-300K and it gets put into retirement.
'80 300D 255k Purchased new by family in 1980.

Had a:
1973 220 (gas)
1980 300SD
1992 400E

Okay, I didn't want to make you guys feel bad, but no I gotta say it: None o' ya'll don't drive worth a *****.

3

I was 16 my parents were out of town, a 928 in the garage and Risky Business was still in the theater. A new shopping mall was under construction so we were tracking it like a Grand Prix I hit a wet spot on fresh asphalt while corning @ 100+ MPH next thing I knew I was sliding sideways to the curb and BAM one more 928 that's good for parts. To make matters even worse after my parents got done reminding me that there is no such thing as unconditional love they started cooking dinner and found a pair of leopard skin panties and a bottle of tequila in the oven.

I'd just got my licence and was out exploring one of the many country lanes near where i grew up at night.
I got bored on one road and decided to turn round at the next junction, it was a pitch black country road, at about 10pm. I reversed the car into the side road, then suddenly i didn't have any brakes- or road! I hadn't cut enough for the tight junction and i rapidly found myself sliding down a wet grass embankment at about 45degrees almost into the river below. The sound of silence when i got out was uncanny. just gently trickling water of the river i'd stopped about 5 feet away from, and the beams of my headlights shining into to night sky. I enlivened the scene with a colourful array of language though.
Talking about feeling like an idiot. Luckily i managed to flag down the next passing motorist, use her cell phone to call a tow truck and they pulled me out. Then her car broke down while we were waiting for the tow truck! I felt sooo bad.
I spent the next day pulling grass and mud out of my undercarriage.
Luckily my trusty Peugeot was completely unharmed

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1993 320TE M104
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past:

1983 230E W123 M102
1994 E300D S124 OM606 (x2)
1967 250SE W108 M129
1972 280se 3.5 W108 M116
1980 280SE W116 M110
1980 350SE W116 M116
1992 300E W124 M103
1994 E280 W124 M104
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"music and women I cannot but give way to, whatever my business" -Pepys

It was a moonless night, with the temp just above freezing. A thick fog made even the 100 watt driving lights seem mere candles in the wind. Fog drops were collecting a little too fast on the windshield to justify keeping the wipers on intermittent. I was driving on a narrow, snaking 2 lane mountain hiway with almost no shoulder. Trees without end on both sides of the truck a mere foot or so from road. I remembered a line from the book called The Teachings of Don Juan: “Death is just off your outstretched left arm.” That comment had come back to me many times, especially when there was oncoming traffic. Or concrete median barriers. Yeah, death to the left. Tonight there was neither traffic nor barrier. I knew the old-growth forest was very close. But I could see neither the trees nor forest through the inescapable dark. It would be the same even if there was no fog. No one but me on the road for 20 minutes. My company was music from a CD and the ever hiss of wind through the open sunroof.

Behind me was rain. Rain like that from Ray Barberry’s book “The Illustrated Man.” Pounding rain. Rain that filled culverts, washed lakes across roadways. Rain that swept away your thoughts except to feel you’d gone insane and were not just watching the passive and indifferent drizzle. Rain that made you wary. Rain that made you fear. Ahead of me, I’d hoped, was abundant soft snowfall. The weatherman had predicted up to 3 feet of fresh snow.

Between the rain, and what I’d hoped to be a blizzard was fog. The fog had filled in almost as the rain receded. I was happy for the lack of traffic. Oncoming headlights in the fog are the most irresistible. Always starting as an eye catching distraction in the dim grey, as the oncoming vehicle drew nearer, so did the light’s intensity. You could imagine how a deer in the headlights might have felt. The light. So seductive as to obviate you of the danger drawing nearer. Almost pulling you towards it. Yes, death is most certainly just off your outstretched left arm. But not tonight. Tonight there was nothing but the inability of even 400 plus watts of light to slice very far through the dark fog. And there was a problem. My dash thermometer said it was 48 degrees outside. Way too warm for snow....

The headlights were enough to guide me along the road’s embrace. The lane markers were apparitions ever fading to the distance. The road itself a dull flat grey quickly fading within the fog to ghostly white. The frequent corner approaching markers were reassurance that the road was there. Miss a corner marker and into the trees, or river, you go.

Despite the fog, going 60 felt okay. Even though the fog hid all of the landmarks, I had a cozy feeling about the rhythm of the road. Knew where I was even though I didn’t. Or so I’d thought.

I’d just finished a sweeping left hand turn at speed. In an instant everything went crazy. The grey roadway disappeared, replaced by shimmering black. Before I could even call upon my mind’s eye to analyze the too briefly viewed change of shading, my foot was heading for the brake petal. Not fast enough. Water hit the windshield with fury. Not drops - bucket loads. Freezing water was coming through the open sunroof. I was on the brake hard enough to trip the brake assist, which in turn tripped the anti lock brake mechanism resulting in a jack hammer like thumping of the brake petal against my foot. The jack hammer under foot was not nearly as fast or hard as my suddenly pounding heart. The instant was an ice pick like stab of terror – the damage all but done before you even know it’s there. The windshield wiper swiped the windshield and gave me just a flick of time to see ahead. The brakes quickly slowed my progress and the water flood diminished along with the truck’s speed.

Then I could see the truck was rolling through several inches of water. There had been a flood. The flood passed over the roadway. The truck traveled through about 100’ of water before I could react. But for blind luck the truck stayed on the roadway and hadn’t drifted right and into the fast moving waters of the White river.

A second later I noticed there was a high water warning sign for oncoming traffic. Long sigh. No harm was done except I’d aged about a year within the last 3 seconds. I continued on my journey through the fog. Driving a little slower....

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...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

Blimey, nice narration. i think the book writing forum is over in the next room though

__________________
1993 320TE M104
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past:

1983 230E W123 M102
1994 E300D S124 OM606 (x2)
1967 250SE W108 M129
1972 280se 3.5 W108 M116
1980 280SE W116 M110
1980 350SE W116 M116
1992 300E W124 M103
1994 E280 W124 M104
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"music and women I cannot but give way to, whatever my business" -Pepys

This past week was a snow storm. The highway was covered in snow. Everyone who was brave enough to get on the highway was travelling at around 35mph. I, on the other hand, along with a friend in the front passenger seat were traveling at 65-70mph. Then, I was about 2 or 3 lanes from the exit lane(couldn't tell because it was all covered in snow), and my friend tells me that the exit is coming up when I was perhaps 20 yards from the exit ramp. So I cut across 3 lanes, causing the car to nearly travel sideways, and onto the exit ramp. I wonder what people traveling behind me thought... and what cursings I must have gotten.

What were you doing wearing something like that? ... never mind, please don't tell me ...

I used to drive on lotsa narrow country roads. When an oncoming car came, it was often driving in the middle of the entire road. What would I do? I'd get into the middle myself and stay there until they started moving over. Now, about a couple decades later, I just ease off of the accelerator and coast towards the edge of the road. [don't get me wrong, you can probably guess what i'm _saying_ as i move over, but at least my driving's safer]

This may be a little long, but worth the read!

Many moons ago, in my early twenties. I was driving with a friend in my '83 Ford Escort out to a ski resort. Other friends were in another car. We also had a case of beer in the back seat.

Soon after hitting the road we hit rush hour traffic and lost our friends. The only "logical" thing to do was to crack open a few beers to help pass the time. Bad idea.

An hour later and many beers past before we realized we were simply driving around the countryside and had missed the resort. We were in a deserted part of the mountains. As I drove, the road we were on would be intersected by other roads. Instead of stopping for the stop signs, I would simply look each way down the intersecting roads to see if there were any oncoming cars. There were none, so I just flew through several intersections with no problem. Until...

The last interection looked the same. But as soon as we entered it, we realized that it actually ended at a "T"!!! We were doing about 50 mph at the time. Directly in front of us was a telephone poll. I swerved to the right, mssing the pole. Only problem was that there was a two foot high stone fence. Luckily there was enough snow embanked in front of it to act like a ramp.

We hit the wall doing 50 and were immediately ariborne. For a couple seconds there was complete silence and we could see nothing but blackness. Then we landed. Hard. Steam was coming out of the hood and the car stalled, but we were both okay.

We got out to access the situation. Best as we could tell, we were in a farmer's field. The nearest house was 1/4 mile away. We dumped all the bear bottles and got into the car. It actually started!! But we had to get back to the road. The field was covered with snow, but the Escort didn't get stuck. We headed towards the only light we saw, the car bouncing over and over the furrows in the field. Eventually we got up to a little road. But there was thick bushes between us and the road. "Hold on!", I yelled. I gunned the engine and drove straight through the bushes onto the road!!

We stopped just in time to see the sillowette of a man standing a few feet in front of us. I slowly rolled down the window. "Landed in the field, did ya?", he asked. "Yup", I answered. He paused and we held our breath. "Aint the first time that's happend. That's my neighbor's field. He's in Florida and he's an *********. So y'all can just leave."

We thanked our lucky stars and left. We then conjured up a "believable" story about why we were so late to ski and made it back to the lodge. Neither of us ever told our friends what happened. Later I looked at the car for damage. A wire attached to the telephone poll had run down the left side of the car and sheared the side view mirror right off the car! I also needed a new radiator.

I only told a couple friends this story late last year-- fifteen years after the fact!



Oh yeah. Don't drink and drive!!

PS I've got a couple more stories, but maybe I should hold off for now to protect my "image"!

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Current:
2014 VW Tiguan SEL 4Motion 43,000 miles.

2016 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport (wife's).

Past:
2006 Jetta TDI 135,970 miles. Sold Nov. '13.
1995 E-320 Special Edition. 220,200 miles. Sold Sept. '07.
1987 190-E 16 valve. 153,000 miles. Sold Feb. '06.
1980 300-D 225,000 miles. Donated to the National Kidney Foundation.
1980 240-D manual, 297,500 miles. Totaled by inattentive driver.

Back in college there was a shortcut to campus that was partially a dirt road. It was a fine dirt road, nicely graded, very wide with a big sweeping left turn in the middle. I used to some of my best rally type driving on that turn in a '72 240z. Come in fast, tap the brake, crank the wheel over and hard on the gas, and slide it around. John Buffum would have been proud.

Well one time I got on the gas a little too much and slide the rear end around too far. No problem I just started to spin the car into a couple of donoughts and figured I'd line up and come out fine. So I'm spining the car around, kicking up a big circle of dust, having a ball, can't see where I'm going and drive out of through the dust to where I thought the road was.

Unfortunatly I misjudged by about 30 degrees and when I came out of the dust bowl ran straight into a telephone pole.

Bent sheetmetal and crushed ego.

and then there was the time....

Going onto International Speedway Blvd on the way to school I made a turn on a slick road and spun the car around facing the other way into traffic. I was an idiot and it's amazing what the power a girl canhave over you. She now accounts it as one of two times I amlost killed us. even though we were fine and there was one car on the other side of the road I still feel like an idiot for that.
and then of course as everyone knows there are my videos, and the high speed runs and such, But I have been staying out of trouble as of the past year and hopefully it stays that way.

Its been a while since I've done anything really stupid. But, when I first got my license I drove a friends Rabbit, with an automatic trans which I whought was rare, straight into a Suburban, totalling the Rabbit and really messing up the 'Burban.

When I had my MGs I occassionally fely like I was really on the edge, until people started passing me in bicycles and waving! Just kidding, sort of.

The last stupid thing I did was chase a Jag, the new E type replacement, the convertible one. He drove past me in my neighborhood really fast with the top down and he had a real smug, cocky look. So , I pursued him and stuck right on his rear through the residential streets at 70 mph, even taking a 90 degree turn at an intersection at about 30, sliding sideways all the way through, and I was in the Explorer. I actually saw him give me a double take on his rear-view mirror!

I really enjoyed putting it to this guy. He had some money to buy the Jag but no skill, and I know it shocked the crap out of him.