How on earth did they pass their test...?

[TimD]

Thought I'd resurrect the theme of naming and shaming idiot drivers on the road. Nominations gratefully received at this thread.

Because yesterday I witnessed a cracker.

The A41 Watford by-pass is the proud possessor of a drive-thru restaurant. Parked up, I watched the following piece of creative driving.

The parking bays for restaurant users are divided from the drive-thru lane by a little harbour wall of bricks, two bricks in depth, about 50cm wide. It channels the passing traffic into the drive-thru route.

Fellow in the red Ford Mondeo had finished his meal, and starts up his car, parked in one of the bays. With a flourish, he spins the wheels to get himself lined up for the exit. Unfortunately, he fails to spot the little row of bricks, and rams them with his right front wheel, which rides up and over, and brings the underpan of the car slamming down on the partition with a metallic crunch.

He barely stops to think, before gunning the engine, and carrying on in a forward motion. The metallic graunching of the floorpan and sill can be heard across the car park, punctuated by the hollow crunches as first his exhaust silencer, then his rear axle smite the bricks. Finally, the rear wheel lurches over the obstruction, and Mondeo man is free from his tormentor. He dabs the brakes, and then blasts off into the streams of Saturday morning traffic.

He leaves a little trail of fluid on the exit ramp. Brake fluid? Transmission fluid? Sump oil? Coolant? Who knows? I was mighty glad my journey took me in the opposite direction.


Anyone else got any driving geniuses they want to report this week?

[Liz]

I've got a walking genius to report.

As I was crossing the street to go to my office yesterday, I spied a young man pushing a baby coach crossing against the light, talking on a cell phone.

Talk about evolution in action.

[Sharky]

Ah.....If you could only meet our bus drivers. According to my "calculations" in other contries many of them would have gotten severe sentences that could go as far as life in prison or death sentences. They're killers at the wheel.

For instance....the bus is driving though the outer lane of a 3 lane street. Somebody calls him at the last minute. 2 things will happen.

1) He will immediately swerve to the right (without even looking trough his mirrors) cutting in front of everyone that was driving in lanes 1 and 2 and forcing them to brake extremely hard (I've had to do it several times). In the process they would occupy 2 and a half lanes and thereafter you would hear all kinds of curses from the other drivers (myself included).

2) The guy would just stop at the outer lane and wait for the guy who called him to cross the road and get into the bus....might I add that they also leave passangers in the middle of the road as well. The mother of a friend of my mom was killed because the f***er who was driving the bus in which she was traveling decided to leave her in the middle of the road and just as she was climbing out of the bus another bus drived by and killed her instantly.

Oh and yes...just in case your wondering....technicaly we do have bus stops....but it's just a formality as every bus driver picks up and drops off passangers wherever they please.

[elephino]

On the drive back to Sydney from Surfers was going along quite well for a change (usually a bad driver a minute almost). Just the usual pick of drivers who do 90km/h in 100 zones and then as soon as there is an overtaking lane they speed up to 110 which means it is virtually impossible to get past them.

One such driver in an old Mazda van was doing this very trick but only sped up to about my normal cruising speed (using cruise control) at overtaking lanes. So I thought, as I could see where the overtaking lane ended, I would speed up just enough to get past and then be rid of him. But that was not his idea. I pulled into the right lane and started to move up and just as I was about to move alongside his rear bumper he cut across in front of me. I left it at that after a small amount of cursing and a dab of the brakes. At the next overtaking lane I had a fair idea he would do it again. And unsurprisingly, I was about to pull alongside during the next overtaking lane and again he moved across. Now it isn't what I normally do, but I didn't want this to happen ever time so I did the only remaining option. I swung back to the left lane (I did indicate and look first) and motored past well before the overtaking lane ended. And luckily that was the end of him as he wasn't able to manage the speed limit during the single lane sections.

[bella]

it's idiots like me who make the road a more dangerous place.
how did i pass my test? yesterday, on a roundabout with traffic lights in the middle of rush hour, the guy in front of me pulled to a stop. i didn't even notice (despite having my eyes fixed on the back of his car), and drove straight into the back of him. luckily, neither of our cars were even scratched, despite creating a hefty thud and a nice traffic jam.
how do we young girls pass our tests? we're just totally incompetant. don't even know how the cars work obviously.
no, but seriously, most accidents occur when the offending driver is either very ill (ie me with a stinking cold and hence very slowed reactions), or very stressed (ie my mum, who drove straight over the top of a renault 5 at a junction).

buses are daft. once, i was sat innocently on the 31 bus, ready to meet my friend in town, when as we pulled out at a junction, *thud*. a peugeot 205 piled straight into the sie of us. the us driver hadn't even noticed there was this car coming, and had pulled out right in front of him. naturally, you can't slow down much at 50mph. nor can you avoid a big white stagecoach bus. no-one was hurt, despite the car being a bit worse for wear, but the very nice driver was looking a bit bewildered.