Had a quick look and didn't find a similar thread... So with a view to folks who just passed thier test, and for general ammusment or information , what have you done? Crashed? Noobed? and general errors.... Horror stories included.. So here's a list of mine, I hasten to add, I'm NOW a qualified minibus instructor (MIDAS)..... Crash: I was working for a car hire company, I was asked to reverse the hire car up this guys drive, he lives on a hill on a bend. I was watching the mirrors as I went up his drive and somehow caught a rut on the side of his drive, it pulled the car to the left and it went on the mud, the car just slid down the hill into a dry stone wall. It was fresh off the transporter that morning, with 11 miles on the clock, and was dam near written off. Bang: I was coming of a roundabout onto a motorway as I switched from right turn to left ( you go right on a roundabout and left to come off) I hit a wet patch on the road. the back of the car overtook the front and the car went spinning down the sliproad...... I hit the barrier (rear right wing) and kept spinning. I hit the barrier (rear left wing) and kept spinning. I hit the barrier (front left wing) and kept spinning. I hit the barrier (front right wing) and stopped. For about 30 seconds I just sat there, didn't move a muscle. If it had been the front tyres that lost grip instead of the back I would have been on my roof in the middle of the M6?!? Wallop: It was an ICY cold day, I had just used de-icer on my windscreen and it was fracking cold. The heaters in my Metro were pointless. I had them on full blast, but the moisture in my breath was misting the windscreen. I had just left my parents in law so the car was dead cold. I was doing about 20 miles an hour at 1am on a Sunday, the roads were empty, so I bent down to pick up the demister pad (spongy thing) I hit a car I hadn't seen. (due to misty windows and taking my eyes of the road to pick up the demisterpad) A) You can do alot of damage at 20 miles an hour, enough to write off a car. B) At 20 miles an hour not wearing a seatbelt will wind you, for about 20 mins ( I normally put it on a few seconds after pulling out of their drive, due to restricted visability). C) NEVER drive if you can't see clearly, AND, NEVER take your eyes of the road. and the WTF: This is a story I repeat.... often... cos it's odd and it's true. I was heading to Leeds from Preston along the M62. I had just gone past that farm house in the middle of the motroway (You'll know it if you drive the M62) heading towards Scammorden dam. I was in the left lane approaching a lorry. I got really spooked by this lorry. There was something really wrong with it. No Idea what. But It just freaked me out. So rather than go in the middle lane, I went on the outside (3rd) lane to overtake it. Just as I pulled past it, it's rear right tyre Blew. I didn't know they go BANG!, they do! If I had been in the second lane I probablly would have been hit by half a HGV tyre. Now. Did I see something that made me wary, maybe a wobble, maybe a puff of smoke? or Was it some kind of sixth (esp) sense / premonition. I have no idea. Still to this day I don't know, (about 13 years ago)
I've been driving for around 3 years. Only had two incidents. One was where I went into the back of someone, barely any damage, a scuff, but it cost us £250 or something to repair their bumper, was barely noticeable. Very slippy road and I braked hard as they had stopped for no apparent reason, and just lost grip and slid into the back just as I was stopping. Other incident was on a wet roundabout, probably going a tad fast, and later turned out my back tyres weren't the best (plenty of tread left, just not very good tyres). Got half way round the roundabout, and all of a sudden the back was sliding round, and I ended up with my front wheels just touching the inside of the roundabout. Luckily there was no traffic about, although a lorry did go past me after I'd stopped, gave me a funny look, . No damage to the car or anything, just a bit shaken up. Also turned out that all the oil and crap from the fields builds up on that roundabout, as my dad managed to get the 4WD Outlander sliding a bit round it. Nothing major, but not bad considering how many stories you hear of 17-19 year olds crashing straight after passing their test. Very sensible driver me,
I was in a blue Renault Clio right, down the A1 and a truck hit me, didn't notice and dragged me down the A1 for a fair bit. iJoke
I haven't had an accident, or caused any damage, but I have nudged a couple of bits of stuff. One was on a roundabout in stockport, the guy in front hesitated when I expected him to go, and I just rolled gently into the back of him (barely moving at all really), got me a funny look in the rear view. Couple of times I've nudged a wall parking at home, that left me a battle scar on the (now dead) Fiat. In a Tesco car park I got reversed into by someone coming out of a space, my boot got slightly mis-shaped, his whole rear end collapsed in on itself so badly that I had to help him duct-tape his bumper and boot back on! Another time I was fooling around in the college car park, whipped out of a space backwards, jammed the brakes on and because it was tiny gravel over dusty earth the car just locked all 4 wheels and slid backwards unbelievably far, about 15 yards right into the side of a nearly-new MGF. After having a face-in-hands moment fearing the worst I got out to check the damage and to my surprise there wasn't a mark on either car; the dirt on the MG hadn't even moved. It was totally perfect, thanks to the squidgy cheap plastic bumpers on my Fiat that had obviously done their job perfectly! Massive sigh of relief and change of underwear later I wasn't feeling so bad. Couple of times on country roads I've got a bit out of shape over a crest but always hung onto it without trouble, never contested with a real end-swapper, although with FWD there's not a lot to be done once it pops out on you.
I drove through the front of a Peugeot 406, driven by a french woman, who was on the wrong side of a side road, and looking for traffic the wrong way down the main road. My trusty Golf was a bit mangled <3 my Volvo - got hit up the backside by a guy in a Mercedes doing ~30mph. The front of his car was absolutely ruined. I had a scratch on the rear bumper, as my car rode up over his bonnet. Ha!
Apart from massive brake fade from a hoon the other day and playing on the ice in February (well, prodding the brakes to find out how much grip and getting rather sideways as a result, though recovering was rather easy), nothing much has happened.
Worst was driving on the limit round a roundabout without realising they'd re-tarmaced half of it, hit that, lost the back end, and slid up a turnoff... that was in my old Punto. Pulled out into the side of someone doing over double the speed limit which was rather amusing aftwards when it turned out I'd cracked my bumper and indicator (£14.50 to fix) and they had broken *deep breath* the bumped, front wing, door, door glass, middle pillar, rear door, rear quarter, rear bumper... their fault too =D Other corner of my car got dented in a matching fashion by my mate reversing his mini into it. With the current car - nothing so far, though a full 45 degree slide on the snow most of the way round a round about, got some worried looks from other drivers (and one from myself as it wasnt intentional!) RwD
Clipped a kerb doing 30 - that woke me up. Driven a little bit off the road - concentrating too much on one thing I guess, didn't half wake me up that one. Pulled out of a junction and a car literally came out nowhere and drove around me on the wrong side of the road. Pulled out of a junction turning right not leaving a lot of room for the car coming from the left but managed it tbh in good time. Looked clear to me and I always look at least twice. I can't understand why they got so close to my rear bumper It's not like they've never done it.. All near misses really. I suppose I've been lucky, until I hit a deer. Nearly a grand's worth of damage and no venison to show for it. New wing, bumper and headlight, although the headlight looked okay it had a broken clip somewhere. Wish I'd taken a pic. Didn't half shake me up.
Going full pelt down a hill on an ATV with a mate, steering broke and we ended 6" from a ravine, that was fun. Soon after my test I clipped a kerb at 40, it really does wake you up. stopped at a set of traffic lights, woman behind me didnt...£1200 worth of damage (bent structural panel). Suicidal fox at 70mph made a hell of a mess of my front end. Dropped the bike at around 60mph hitting a glassy smooth bit of road on a corner in the wet (my fault really, going too fast for the conditions) Thats my lot so far and long may it remain. Moriquendi
Only been driving for two years, so far nothing that's cost me anythere but wow, there have been some 'learning expierences'... Coming around a corner and see my turn is closer than I expected, prompty get into the left turn lane and hit the brakes pretty hard. Turns out it was a little wet and I went sliding off into the street I was trying to turn to! Amazing luck there, if anyone was in the oncoming lane it would have been a mess. First day at work. Very nervous and confused. Just happened to be early December and it was unusually cold. 15F is not exactly normal here. Anyway, my car is parked in a lot like normal and I get out my ice scraper because new ice has formed during my 30 minute absence. Came across a slight problem... it was so cold and my car is so poorly insulated that ice formed on the inside too! I cleared the windshield and decided to just be safe, but of course I bump into someone backing out. Thankfully it was only a little paint mark and the owner was very understanding. About two months after my exam I was with a couple friends and we were out and about having fun. Pulling out of a parking lot I totally misjudged where I was and what the roads were... I thought I was backing into a one lane road so I followed the curb, turns out it was two lane and following the curb put me in the opposing lane! Again, no traffic so it ended up alright, but they still never let me live it down.
I had that this year. Very cold weather, had been out, then came back to the car a little later, and all the moisture inside had frozen onto the windscreen inside. So, heater on full, and surprisingly the dash didn't get very wet, it all just went back into the air.
Decided to hire a car in canada (UK licence) and have driven arround a bit in Dubai without incident i didnt see id have any problems in canada. Went to local car hire place (sounds like Star trek space ship) and got myself a Toyota thingy. Added the extra $1 per day insurance last min as i dont own a car normally. 4 hours later... Low speed passenger side impact with a pontiac, my fault. Details.. Stopped at a junction and wanting to turn left. Light went green and i moved into oncoming traffic by mistake. NOOO idea why i decided to do that but obvioulsy a bad move. ever felt so humiliated and annoyed with myself in my life. No police, no injuries, no fines, no points. got an upgrade car the next day !!!
been driving for 8 years now. had surprisingly few run-ins. Worst one was around this time last year, when i wrote off my Volvo S40 over a very drunk pedestrian that was sleeping in the middle of the road at dusk. Sun in my eyes... no way i could've seen him. The missus was next to me in the car, and she didn't see him either. Anyway. The guy's alive (drunken luck), in spite of the fact that my oil filter got whacked off, my engine seized, my A/C was broken, electronics shredded, etc. then the "brown marks in the seats" happened after i got my present car. A very lively 1.4l Turbo 110kw Fiat Bravo. Part of my purchase deal was new tyres, but all i had at that time was a set of worn out Bridgestone Potenzas (shredded after 27000km by the previous owner). So I pull out of a slipway onto a bigger road, and random audi-driving-tosser #23 comes slamming past me on the left, cutting me off. I hit the brakes, but since I was driving (my old) golf GTI as a courtsey car the last couple of days, I didn't let go of the accelerator far enough (long reach pedals, lively turbo engine, not the best suspension). This whole thing ended with me sliding the car at a ~100 degrees angle towards a parked car. I managed to stop literally MILLIMETERS from it... but yeah... soiled pants.
A lady and myself managed to back into each other. Nothing was dented, broken, or sore, so we just went on our merry way.
Both of my scariest near misses have been when i was a passenger. First time was in our Type-R. The missus was driving along the country road to the village i grew up in, bright sunny day and its a great country road for having some fun on and very popular with bikers. We were coming up to a tight left hand corner at the end of a long straight and she was slowing down for the corner, probably doing about 80 at this point, when a biker came around the bend on a full on lean in the middle of the road. That got our attention! About a second later his friend who was obviously trying to catch up came around the same corner, again on full lean and even further onto our side of the road. His head was heading straight for our head light and we could see his face through the visor. Somehow he managed to haul himself back up and he just missed us. He did a bit of a tank slapper down the road, straightened out and kept on going the crazy *******. We had to pull over and stop it had been that close. Second time we were leaving a friends house in the early hours of the morning. The road from his house is a single lane country road with a long straight down a steep hill. Due to the steepness of the hill the car head lights were pointing pretty much straight down. As the slope started to bottom out and the lights shown further down the load two eyes appeared in the darkness. Turns out there was a big black bull standing in the middle of the road. We braked hard and ended up locking all four wheels. Luckily the cow stayed where it was and didnt move and my m8 managed to slide right past it down the verge. I got quite a good look at the thing as it went past my side window and it would have been straight through the wind sreen and onto us if we had hit it. Vauxhall Nova vs Bull would not have been a fare fight.
well i can only remember 3 things that happen to me , de first one was in the very same day that i bought my awesome and amazing ...not .. 1990 opel corsa .. i was all excited my first car , i went for a coffee that night with a few friends . when we got out of the bar my rear bumper and tail light's were smashed and the side was almost on top a bmw 530 which made it hit an peugeot 307sw ... called the police and the first thing the officer ask his who's that pile of junk from ... that hurt at the time lol , the next was in that very same corsa a few years after in a corner the steering just locked and i hit a side walk , police came and i found out that a few hours before there had been an accident and the road had oil .... the third was in my father seat ibiza gt tdi a women in a nissan patrol run trough a red light and hit us right where i was ... scary luckily me and my father were ok ..the car .. well i managed to salvage the rims lool
I had one crash after about 3 months. I was sat behind a car at a roundabout. There was a gap, so, expecting them to pull away, I did too and hit the back of them. Funny thing is, their 2005 Golf was undamaged apart from one bit of trim, whilst the front end of my 1996 Clio was ruined. Also, when it was really cold last year, there had been a water mains leak on my way back from work. This had turned to ice, so as i braked into a roundabout, not a lot happened other than my car skidding and deciding now was a good time to spin. Fortunately the roundabout was clear, and no damage was done.
I've been driving for 4 years now and have only had one major accident, which most of you know about already - it's been discussed at length here since I brought it up Other than that, about 6 months after I got my license, I "rubbed" the rear quarter panel of a parked car with my front driver side wing whilst reversing out of a parking space. Easy mistake for a new driver to make. I waited around and gave the guy my details but he said not to worry - the damage to my own car was worse than his and he said it would polish out and be barely noticeable anyway. Another "whoops" that happened in the car I crashed at Christmas was reversing into a concrete bollard. I was on my way home from work late one night and it was raining really heavily. I could barely see out the windscreen never mind the rear window. I missed a turn that the SatNav called late and had to turn in someones driveway. They had short concrete bollards fencing off a small area in the driveway that I didn't see and reversed into, cracking and scraping my bumper. I never repaired the damage because again, it wasn't that noticeable.
