Dumbest thing you ever did driving?

[Archae]

I was just watching one of those "dumb driver" shows on Tru TV, and was thinking about the dumbest thing I ever did while driving.

I went into a skid coming off a freeway, down to a stop sign.
(It was snowing, yes.)

I turned the wheel in panic the wrong way.

So I come to a stop at the stop sign.

Backwards.

Guy who was behind me is now in front of me laughing his ass off.

[TexasTowelie]

1. I choose to take the fifth on this question

in order not to incriminate myself any further. However, my driving record is at the DMV.

[steve2470]

7. I'm with you, taking the fifth also nt

[intaglio]

2. Not taking the first exit available

and taking a break, but instead pushing on another couple of miles until I fell asleep at the wheel



70 mph into the back of a stationary truck. I walked away(with difficulty)

[hunter]

10. OUCH!

I was in an accident, not so bad, and walked away with some amazing bruises from the seatbelt. (This was before airbags.)

If the accident had happened in an older car without seat belts, generous crumple zones, and other mandated safety features I'd have been dead or severely injured.

Your accident looks so much worse. I'll bet that HURT.

[kwassa]

3. well, which one should I pick as dumbest?

that's a tough question, so many to choose from. Mostly my teenage exploits.

The dumbest in recent years was fording a creek in my suburban station wagon.

I was determined to take the shortest route across a rural section of this large DC suburban county. AND, I was warned that there was no bridge across the creek. I had just attended a funeral, too. I thought I knew better. Funny how that works.

I looked at it carefully before crossing, but I didn't account for the steepness of the bank on the other side. My front bumper dug in. Fortunately, it popped out of the mud, and I made it through and out.

If I had become stuck, I would have been there a very long time. I didn't see any other vehicles for miles before I reached that creek.

[NightWatcher]

4. I used to get in car chases (for work) on a regular basis around Atlanta

I've driven down embankments, up and over curbs, and a lot of other moves that most people and vehicles should be advised against.

Damn I miss car chases

[Orrex]

5. I once used a putter to hit from the tee on the Masters Tournament

Now that was embarrassing.

[Auggie]

6. Driving so fast it took the cop miles to catch me

I was 16 or 17 on a great two-lane country road -- lots of curves and hills (if you went fast enough you could get the car airborne). Drove an Opel GT, the "mini-vette," equipped with heavy-duty shocks. It cornered like a dream.

I must have passed a cop but couldn't see him in the rear-view mirror because the road was so winding. Only when I came to stop sign on a busy cross street did I see him come up behind me.

[Arugula Latte]

8. Turning the wrong way onto one-way streets (I plead confusing or insufficient signage)

[hunter]

9. Young men with cars and motorcycles are often thrill seeking idiots.

I should know, I was one.

In the bad old days when motorcycles had headlamps you could turn off it was a full moon overhead and I was riding down a lonely desert highway very, very fast, on a big motorcycle with the lights off. I hit a little unexpected dip in the road and almost lost it. That terrified me so much I had to stop and walk around a bit to gather my wits. It was my last stupid motorcycle trick.

But the dumbest thing I ever did in a car? I was a passenger, not the driver. I was fighting with a girlfriend and it got too heavy so I opened the door and stepped out. The car was moving, I don't know how fast, probably only 35mph or so, but it seemed like I was sliding and spinning and rolling forever. I left a lot of skin and blood on the streets of Berkeley.

[MissB]

11. When I was a new mother

I went back to work a few months after giving birth. My job required me to travel in an employer-owned car. I breastfed my kids. Since they were in daycare, I had to pump. I only pumped once when the car was moving (at 55 mph). Yes, that was dumb.

[Throd]

12. Crashing a stolen car while running from the California Highway Patrol.

[GReedDiamond]

19. I think you win the thread...

...congratulations!

In the early 70s, I was chased by the cops once, but I didn't realize that they were after me...I never exceeded the speed limit, I stopped at the stop signs, used my turn signals when turning, etc. It was kinda like the OJ "slow speed chase," but on surface streets, not a freeway.The cop had his lights on, but no siren going, and I thought he was just transporting the guy he had just busted from a car I had passed on the side of the road, a little way back.

I finally realized what was going on when the cop car forced me off the road.

That realization was reinforced by the beating Ofcr. Friendly administered to my head with his gun butt and the nearby cement curb.

I got a lawyer who was friends with the judge, who dropped all charges against me - there were six felony charges altogether - except for one, which was reduced to a misdemeanor with a $500 fine, no jail time or probation.

Score another win for white privilege!

[Jamaal510]

13. When I was taking driving lessons

a few years ago, I mistook the accelerator for the brake, and I stepped on it when I was intending to stop at a red light. Fortunately, I was in the type of car where my instructor could also control it from her seat.

[Jenoch]

14. About two weeks after getting my driver's license at age 16

I drove a car into a lake.

Fortunately, it was February. And it was also the only spot on that shoreline where I could go off the road and onto the lake where the underside of the car would not be destroyed by boulders. I was distracted and went off the asphalt and into the deep snow off the road. Since it was just 1/4 mile from my house, I walked home and my dad pulled the car out of the snow and back onto the dry pavement with his car. I got laughed at by my brothers and friends, but pretty soon those guys did something stupid too.

[shenmue]

15. I have to admit: was drunk, more than once.

Stupidest thing ever. I don't do that anymore. Thank God I am still here to ramble on about it.

[mokawanis]

16. Drove my car into a lake on a foggy night

The girl I was dating was giving me directions to a friend's house, so when she told me to make a right I did...and drove down a boat ramp into a lake.

[riderinthestorm]

17. Changed my clothes completely including putting on pantyhose while driving down the highway

New car, cruise control and a younger (stupider) more flexible self meant I was successful.

[ohnoyoudidnt]

20. Climbing out and onto the hood of a car I was in at 50 mph and and then jumping onto another car

going the same direction (two lane highway) and then climbing inside, after car surfing and jumping back and forth a few times.

[Art_from_Ark]

21. I was not the driver in this case,

but I saw the driver of a Cadillac (a car often associated with yakuza here in Japan) commit at least 4 moving violations within the course of maybe 1/2 mile, including:

1) failure to stop for a pedestrian in a crosswalk
2) improper lane change (nearly causing an accident by cutting off another driver)
3) speeding, and
4) running a red light (especially dangerous given that cars from the cross-street had started to enter the intersection and the driver was going straight from a turn-only lane)