Whats the scariest driving experience you ever had

uch

For me it was in the 80's when it was ok to have a few pints and drive, but I was driving a mini and I was the soberest but decided I needed to put on my seatbelt in case we were stopped by the Gardaí, but I tried to do it going round a corner and the belt was stuck in the door, so i opened the door and fell out, me mate copped me falling out and grabbed me by the hasp of me pants and pulled me back in, but not till me head had hopped off the road, carried on regardless and only realised what had happened afterwards

uck51js9zml2yt

Had someone drive towards me on the M7 a few weeks ago.

Harry Palmr

Scariest experience was not the rollover crash or being hit by a lorry on my passenger side, it was driving to work along a narrow country road as a car coming against me pulled back in to his side of the road having overtaken a vehicle on a blind bend. Had I reached that same spot one second earlier I'd be dead (and him as well).

Pawwed Rig

Came off a motorbike at about 60 mph and was sliding down the road towards a car coming the opposite way. Still not sure how he managed not to hit me.

tomwaterford

Getting a spin back from dublin when was about 18

We were on the back way into carrick on suir from kk side.....

Going way to fast,hit the hump just after the turnoff....lad lost control...only for the road was so wide,wed been fcuked

Car was sideways with drivers side facing way we came when it eventully stopped

Senna

Dark road, driving along at about 60mph, had my lights dipped after going through a lit up area, next thing I see is the light shines on the rear wheels of a tractor who had just pulled out right infront of me from a rural pub, no lights on the back or front of the tractor, didn't even have time to break, just had to serve out onto the other side of the road, barely missed the tractor and barely kept control of the car.
I was about 20 at the time and too stupid to stop and pull the drunk old farmer out of the tractor.

The Specialist

Flipped a car coming off a roundabout, 4 people in it. Construction fencing was the only thing that stopped us barrell rolling and causing possible fatalities.

keith_sixteen

Senna wrote: »

Dark road, driving along at about 60mph, had my lights dipped after going through a lit up area, next thing I see is the light shines on the rear wheels of a tractor who had just pulled out right infront of me from a rural pub, no lights on the back or front of the tractor, didn't even have time to break, just had to serve out onto the other side of the road, barely missed the tractor and barely kept control of the car.
I was about 20 at the time and too stupid to stop and pull the drunk old farmer out of the tractor.

To be fair, a formula 1 driver vs. a tractor is always going to end badly.

jacksie66

This post has been deleted.

Armchair Andy

Harry Palmr wrote:

Scariest experience was not the rollover crash or being hit by a lorry on my passenger side, it was driving to work along a narrow country road as a car coming against me pulled back in to his side of the road having overtaken a vehicle on a blind bend. Had I reached that same spot one second earlier I'd be dead (and him as well).

Was it a Range Rover?

dreamers75

Going to a Setanta Cup match a few years ago and doing 100mph down one lane back roads with a lunatic driver or comeing back from Cork in under 2 hours in an Octavia RS which was interesting.

keith_sixteen

For me, it was coming down a mountain pass in the Alps in some annoying weather. It was just wet, nothing worse. Anyway, wanted to get home and was going back little faster than I should have.

Road was quite busy. As I was coming out of the apex of yet another hairpin turn, i was confronted by something mysterious called "understeer".

It was terrifying, and I instinctively managed to get out of it before ploughing into a tour bus coming up the pass. Can't explain it other than saying I **** my pants.

InTheTrees

Experiencing a white out on a mountain road in California. The snow just got heavier and heavier until the windscreen just went white, after a heart stopping second it cleared to reveal a pickup truck spinning towards us from the other direction. Missed us and we pressed on.

magentis

Missed the fairway completely last week on the 16th.Ended up in awful rough,which was so bad I was able to squat and take a sh1t with no fear of being seen.

JustLen

On holidays here in Ireland when I was a kid aged 7 or 8.

Overloaded in the back of a 3 door early-90's hatchback. Me sitting on a relatives lap with no seatbelt.

Head on collision with a 30 odd seater bus on a back road at about 4 in the morning. Driver was drunk. We were going a fair speed, driver didnt even break before impact!!

Remember slapping my head off the back of the drivers head, then blacked out for a short while. Woke up surrounded by passengers from the bus. Didnt have a clue where I was or what had happened for a few minutes.

Got up and walked back over and sat in to the car, nothing but a swollen forehead.

Driver got badly hurt. No sympathy as he was drunk!

Lucky to walk away from that, will never ever forget it.

L1011

Hit a clump of ice between two paths the gritters had passed, car fishtails and eventually spins in to a snowbank on the side of the M11. Had to dig the rear wheels out and limp the car off the road to a flat surface to get under and hack compacted snow/ice from inside the wheels as it was causing balance issues.

Customer who had insisted the weather "wasn't bad enough" to reschedule was quite apologetic!

Oops!

Was'nt really scary but just pure madness........

Back years ago before the M8 was around, Thurles to the Dunkettle roundabout in Cork early one Saturday morning in the passenger seat of a 94 XLI Corolla in 50 mins....

Driver refused to put the car in 5th at any stage of the journey as "it only made the car die down".... Mad yoke.

368100

Learning to ride a motorbike......went to overtake a tractor, don't know how I didn't see it but as soon as I pulled out a Lorry was right in front of me.....just about got swerved back in.......made it home and actually went into shock......haven't really rode bike since

CaptainR

On my way to work one morning on my motorbike in the rain. I was riding along a dual carriage way coming up to a roundabout in the overtaking lane, which I usually wouldn't be in. I was going straight through so the line I took was a good bit tighter than usual.

I'm leaning to the right going through and as I exited I leaned to the left and I opened the throttle too early and too viciously. I must have hit diesel. The rear tire start sliding and then the front lost traction too and I was sliding to the right towards the lane divider.

I don't know why but in the split second that this was happening I just opened the throttle more and it righted itself. I was about a foot away from hitting the kerb.

Got to work and I was shaking.

the_pen_turner

Oops! wrote: »

Was'nt really scary but just pure madness........

Back years ago before the M8 was around, Thurles to the Dunkettle roundabout in Cork early one Saturday morning in the passenger seat of a 94 XLI Corolla in 50 mins....

Driver refused to put the car in 5th at any stage of the journey as "it only made the car die down".... Mad yoke.

that's some going, even now that's giving her holly. its 1 hour from the jockey to dun kettle doing the limit on the motorway

bazz26

This

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0hu0rle6ts

Brother Luke

I almost drowned at sea on 2 or 3 occasions. It's pretty scary when you get caught by waves and get dragged out to sea.

ella23

2010 driving on the motorway from Athlone to Punchestown, it was just after pouring rain and the road was still soaked, was taking the turnoff towards punchestown (one way and one lane) and my car aquaplaned on the road, it did a complete 180. I ended up turning in the opposite direction with absolutely no control over the car. The only thing that saved my life and my passengers was a lorry driver behind me who must have seen it about to happen and he had the cop on to slow down and come to a stop before he hit me, i genuinely think anyone else would have rammed straight in to me and killed both cars of people stone dead.

Landed back to Athlone the following day and immediately changed all my tyres. Lesson learned and has been ever since.

Oops!

the_pen_turner wrote: »

that's some going, even now that's giving her holly. its 1 hour from the jockey to dun kettle doing the limit on the motorway

Some going alright, myself and the fella that was driving still have a laugh about it every now and again....

The fella in the back does'nt remember it so fondly... If he was on boards he would be posting about it as his scariest driving experience he ever had!

I've never seen somebody go so pale and quiet in 50 mins!

Senna

Brother Luke wrote: »

I almost drowned at sea on 2 or 3 occasions. It's pretty scary when you get caught by waves and get dragged out to sea.

Driving, not diving

RayM

Driving through really dense fog on the M7, not long after I passed my test. Visibility was so poor, I could barely make out the silhouette of the car in front. At least half the cars on the road that morning had no lights on.

Junkyard Tom

Brother Luke wrote: »

I almost drowned at sea on 2 or 3 occasions. It's pretty scary when you get caught by waves and get dragged out to sea.

You shouldn't have been trying to drive a car into the sea.

heroics

Years ago coming down the m1 couple of km before the toll. Was in the outside lane doing slightly over the speed limit. Catching up on 2 trucks in left lane. Just as I reached the first truck he pulled out To over take the struck in front. Ended up driving in the grass verge at ~120. Truck never even noticed kept going on it's merry way as I was praying not to hit a manhole cover or something trying to slow down and get back onto the road.

Nearly had to change my pants. Drove rest of way to Dublin with the hands shaking

Super-Rush

Its a choice between narrowly avoiding the corner of a bridge on my side (passenger) bit still ending up in the middle of a flooded river one night, or the night i woke up to find tbe driver had aslo fallen asleep and the van was heading for a ravine. Two seconds later and that would have been my final sleep.

hedzball

Coming home from a Gf of the times house late one night in limerick on my bike a few years back.

Came across a body laying across the road. Old fella walking home dropped dead.

Rang the guards and had to wait about 7 mins or so.. Felt like 7 hours. Sitting in the light of the bike with someone still on the road. I never told any of my friends or gf I guess I just froze to this day.

Still think about the guy from time to time. Sad way to go.





'hdz

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

My brother turned a car over with me in the passenger seat a few years ago, that was terrifying. The most scared I was while driving was one morning heading to work, bombing along. Going faster than I should have been but it was an empty enough straight stretch of road on the outskirts of town. I was almost up on top of this entrance to an estate to my left. I saw a car approach from the estate about to merge onto the main road (that I was on). There was not enough time for the car to do so and I was driving at over 100km on the main road. Next thing she swung her car out right in front of me. I was practically standing on the brakes but it felt like my car was going faster. I swerved onto the opposite side of the road and recall seeing an oncoming jeep. That driver obviously saw what happened so he pulled right into the grass verge and my car shot out between the two and overtook the car that had pulled out in front of me. I got such a fright as soon as the car stopped I just sat there. I was trembling so much I couldn't even get the car into gear to move it off the road. The car overtook me again and the man on the passenger side waved apologetically as they drove on. I pulled myself together and drove on behind them. Only to notice her to pull up outside a playschool and unload two small kids. Seeing that made me crazy. Seeing two little kids, pre school age get out of the car I narrowly avoided ramming into was all I needed to send me over the edge. I was shaking like a leaf. I stopped my car and went mad at your one, she kept saying "sorry Mrs I was in a hurry I wasn't thinking" are you for real? I could have killed your kids and your telling me to calm down there's no harm done?? I reported it to the guards but they did **** all about it, never heard anything back.

I was completely taken aback by her blasé attitude of ah sure no harm done to the situation.

greencap

Misjudged my speed when coming up to a line of stopped traffic.

Momentary lapse of attention, had to go a fair deal harder on the breaks than normal.

I would have been the douchebag who plowed right into the back of a stationary car.

Probably would have seriously injured someone. Left them with back issues.

Horrible thought.

The experience put a little manners on me.

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

Here's another one actually. Driving to the south of the country late one night. I was only young, maybe 20/21. It was a Sunday night, about 1am and the roads were quiet. I passed through a small town and about 15km further on there was another town, if you could even call it a town. It was basically a street, a chipper a few pubs a church and a derelict hotel on my left. The side of the hotel was next to the street and you could turn off the street to the left to the front of the hotel was facing into a square/carpark area. Now it was completely empty. Street lights lit the street and up past the front of hotel but it was so secluded.
When you go through this village/town about 10km is the next huge town.

So I'm driving along, tunes blaring, not a care in the world. Then, I see someone laying in the middle of the road. I completely panicked, I'd be horrid **** in an emergency and I have no nerves for medical emergencies. I was afraid to drive past it incase I saw a dead person and I didn't know what to do. I reversed the car in a panic thinking I'd go back to the previous town but realistically it was too far and I couldn't think, my mind and heart was racing, I thought someone had knocked this person down and left him there. Just as I was thinking wtf I was going to do, the would be corpse got off the road and stood in onto the footpath. Knowing he wasn't roadkill, I relaxed a bit and drove on slowly.

As I got closer I noticed he looked like a complete scumbag. Hoodie, snapback, tracksuit etc. I passed him by slowly, and as I was passing the hotel (just a little bit down from him) I looked up to my left and there was a few young lads all together waiting there.

It dawned on me then, they would have most likely taken my car had I approached and got out to check the person on the road. It completely unnerved me, and I'll always lock the doors driving

Junkyard Tom

greencap

Junkyard Tom wrote: »

ahh i remember that. legendary post.

Noo

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Scariest experience was not the rollover crash or being hit by a lorry on my passenger side, it was driving to work along a narrow country road as a car coming against me pulled back in to his side of the road having overtaken a vehicle on a blind bend. Had I reached that same spot one second earlier I'd be dead (and him as well).

I had something similar only a few months ago down the country. The road was wide and had a wide hard shoulder, which probably saved my life. I could see someone overtaking on the opposite side, i wasn't sure if he had enough time to pull back in before I got there so I slowed down and moved over, giving enough room for 3 vehicles on the road if need be. He managed to pull back in just in time so all good. Anyway another guy in the line of traffic (unaware of me) suddenly pulls out to overtake too! Right where I was! Only because I had been moved over for the previous guy he would've smashed right into me. He did the overtake in the space i had left. I didnt even get the jolt of adrenaline because my mind didn't register what they guy had just done quick enough. He couldve killed us.

K.Flyer

About 25 years ago I was driving late at night leaving a coastal town in southern Turkey to get over the mountain to head north on the main road.
The car was an old Ford Taunus and as it was the first time to have it out on unlit country roads we then realised that the headlights were not worth a fart in the pitch dark.
As were started up the twisty mountain road we got caught behind an artic. That's handy I thought, as I could see eff all as there were no roadmarkings or reflectors, so I stayed on his tail lights and thought I'd let him guide me over the mountain.
All was going well for the climb until I suddenly felt the smoothness of asphalt disappear, truck brake lights are on and gravel and dirt started bouncing off the bonnet and windscreen, I'm straight on the brakes with no grip in the dirt, the trailer lights, now bouncing around in front of us, suddenly vanish off to our right and leave us stopped and wondering what just happened.
Remember we are in a left hand drive, I look out my window and all I could say was something like .. oh sweet fcuking jesus, or words to that effect, I said to my wife to take a look and she said something similar.
Can't explain how's or why's, but we think the truck driver just hadn't seen the sharp bend in the road, veered across to the wrong side of the road and almost went straight over the unguarded edge of the mountain road and we would have probably just followed him over.
Luckily he managed to save himself and carried on.
We got out of the car, we had stopped about 3 metres from the edge of what looked like a sheer drop with the tiny lights of the town miles away.
What happened shook us up a bit, but what nearly happened on that pitch dark night on the side of Turkish mountain still gives me a shudder.

pragmatic1

Seeing my friends spin out of control and almost getting hit by an artic lorry. I just covered my eyes. Luckily the lorry driver was quick thinking and managed to go off the road to avoid hitting them. That was sheer terror. No one was badly injured luckily.

A few years later I went off the road and crashed into a tree, but that wasn't as frightening as almost seeing three of my good friends get killed.

Latatian

Was driving along at 60 in a 60 zone, unfamiliar road, speed limit had just gone down from 80. Noticed that the road was a bit wet, not much, so I cautiously went down to 50 as I had family in the car and wanted to be safe.

Went 'round a corner and the back of the car attempted to go straight instead. I couldn't hit the brakes as someone had just come up behind me doing something closer to 80. My car slid sideways and it took me a minute or two to regain control, I accelerated out of it meaning that the car behind us didn't hit us, they slid as well on the same spot, we all got out of it safely.

No harm done. But jesus, another morning I might not have noticed the speed change down on the unfamiliar road. 50 feels like such a crawl, I would have thought it was impossible to slide like that.

Stigura

Alright; I haven't ploughed through the thread ~ see what I, sort of, just did there? ~ Because the first glance at the title alone gave me a virtual 'flashback'!

Twenty, thirty years ago? Roughly. I'm in england and doing a bit on a builders crew. Like ye do.

I've never learned to drive. But, I always had a thing for the Peugeot 504 pick up. And I'm bombing along a motorway one morning, on to the way to a job. Just me and Andy, driving.

Great! No problemo. Chattering away. Smoking our roll ups. Got a Concrete Mixer in the back. (Yes, lads! F**king great Concrete mixer. Not one of these little, orange, one man DIY set up cement mixers!)

Battering along. Rush hour. I'm dimly aware of a 'Strangeness' is the ride experience.

Moments later? I'm seeing how we're no longer cruising along beside that white line.We're, for lack of any better description; Flickering. Or shuddering against it. I had no seat belt on.

Then we're Fishtailing!!! Easy to read it. Seen it in the f**king films. But. we're Doing it!!!

08:23. Tuesday morning. Somewhere along the M275. In a white Peugeot 502 pickup. And our arse end if offering to swap places with either side of our front end, at any second now!!! The f**king back end was Side to Side across the entire f**king Lane!

" It's alright. I've got it. " Spits Andy, Between teeth so gritted they were almost smashing themselves. Pulse in his temple. Carotid artery fit to burst. Sweat gleaming on his top lip.

Either I was watching a Bruce Willis scene? Or I was seeing a man envisaging the next moment, where concrete mixer 1. Peugeot 0. comes up.

And we side roll across the lanes. The cab and our smashed and mangled bodies and heads accompanied by the screams and sparks or rending metal as an errant concrete mixer crashes through a random other poor souls family or work team motors windscreen!

I had Never, at that point, been so f**king scared in my life!!!

Obviously; Andy managed to slow down. Do what ever one does, in that situation. We got to work. Got home. And I'm still here to talk about it ~ even while sh!tting myself at the Horrible memory.

But, yeah; Never been so scared, in a regular motoring incident, in my f**king life!

Harry Palmr

K.Flyer wrote: »

As were started up the twisty mountain road we got caught behind an artic. That's handy I thought, as I could see eff all as there were no roadmarkings or reflectors, so I stayed on his tail lights and thought I'd let him guide me over the mountain.

This is actually one of the most dangerous things you can do at night - I'm sure many of us have esp on a journey along country roads, as they are doing the hard work of picking out the unlit verges and unmarked sharp bends etc not you but it's so easy to slip into autopilot mode and end up in their boot! :pac:

Samaris

Stormchasing in Greece. We started near the top of a mountain, doing our study of whatever we were studying that day, and then the storm started up. Funnel cloud reaching down from the sky, air turns grey-yellow (although we must have been fifteen km away, distance is hard to judge in the mountains). So we hop into the jeep and the hail starts, fecking golfballs raining down on the jeep and on the narrow mountain path. Well, we bombed down that dirt track, hail skeetering all over and I'm thinking "this is the guy that nearly headed us off a cliff or into another car when we got here and he forgot we should be on the other side of the road...and that's a really long way down to the right of us...oh well."

Welp, we chased that storm down onto the plain and then it did what they do and split. Then we had one behind us and one in front of us and we bombed the hell out of there at right angles to both.

It was actually awesome, tbh. But definitely alarming.

marklazarcovic

Used to live in a wooded area,house in the middle of small woods,one dirt road in and out,leaving for work one morning,it was frosty,kinda foggy, beautiful to look at. Just to set the scene.

Anyway,I leave at 4.45am ..driving down , (had a Opel Corsa at the time) ..doing about 30mph.. see a figure just about ahead of me..can't make it out properly.

Think it's just my eyes and the fog playing with me,still I ease off a bit.. had window half open coz I was smoking.

Then I hear a Almighty roar/scream and the figure bounds towards me ..a deer,big bitch, didn't have time to brake,didn't matter..she hopped clean over me,bonnet to boot..in that instant I was elated,then she roared, and a smaller deer appeared up ahead,it started panicking,darting right then left in front of me about 30ft all the time wailing..the mother roared again.

The baby ran at me and did the same as it's mother but my lights caught it's eyes as it was lower to the ground ..sheer terror and panic..much like my own I'd imagine
.

All that in about 10 seconds .

JPF82

12 years ago, when I was a learner driver, I was heading from Roscommon to Athlone in my 1 litre polo. The road is a 100kph zone. I come up behind a car doing 60. The Polo only has 50 horsepower so I have to plan my overtakes. I know the road well so I decide to wait until the straight stretch in Kiltoom which was clear to overtake. As I get alongside the slower car, the prick I'm overtaking decides to speed up to 100 kph and beyond, leaving me hung out to dry. Nothing coming the other way thank God, but what a prick that other driver was.

Samaris

JPF82 wrote: »

12 years ago, when I was a learner driver, I was heading from Roscommon to Athlone in my 1 litre polo. The road is a 100kph zone. I come up behind a car doing 60. The Polo only has 50 horsepower so I have to plan my overtakes. I know the road well so I decide to wait until the straight stretch in Kiltoom which was clear to overtake. As I get alongside the slower car, the prick I'm overtaking decides to speed up to 100 kph and beyond, leaving me hung out to dry. Nothing coming the other way thank God, but what a prick that other driver was.

Hate when people do that. It's such a dickish thing to do. People derping around on roundabouts may just be idiots or ignorant (which is also no excuse), but that sort of malarky is deliberate and endangers people. >.>

ToddyDoody

I'm thinking it was the time my friend put the car in reverse by mistake. Luckily there was no-one behind us but it does open your eyes as to how easy it is to be in an accident when you're a terrible driver.

dudara

I had a very bad acquaplane once when doing 100 km/hr on a dual lane carriage way. Car went to right to left and back. Thought I was either going to hit traffic on the right or go into the ditch on the left.

Thankfully, driving logic prevailed, I took my foot off the accelerator to lose sped, kept my foot off the brakes and steered through it. Had to sit down for 15 mins afterwards when I did get to work.

bmwguy

A high powered motorcycle on the m50 performed a punishment overtake on me recently.

Just insanely frightening.

D Trent

Stigura wrote: »

Alright; I haven't ploughed through the thread ~ see what I, sort of, just did there? ~ Because the first glance at the title alone gave me a virtual 'flashback'!

Twenty, thirty years ago? Roughly. I'm in england and doing a bit on a builders crew. Like ye do.

I've never learned to drive. But, I always had a thing for the Peugeot 504 pick up. And I'm bombing along a motorway one morning, on to the way to a job. Just me and Andy, driving.

Great! No problemo. Chattering away. Smoking our roll ups. Got a Concrete Mixer in the back. (Yes, lads! F**king great Concrete mixer. Not one of these little, orange, one man DIY set up cement mixers!)

Battering along. Rush hour. I'm dimly aware of a 'Strangeness' is the ride experience.

Moments later? I'm seeing how we're no longer cruising along beside that white line.We're, for lack of any better description; Flickering. Or shuddering against it. I had no seat belt on.

Then we're Fishtailing!!! Easy to read it. Seen it in the f**king films. But. we're Doing it!!!

08:23. Tuesday morning. Somewhere along the M275. In a white Peugeot 502 pickup. And our arse end if offering to swap places with either side of our front end, at any second now!!! The f**king back end was Side to Side across the entire f**king Lane!

" It's alright. I've got it. " Spits Andy, Between teeth so gritted they were almost smashing themselves. Pulse in his temple. Carotid artery fit to burst. Sweat gleaming on his top lip.

Either I was watching a Bruce Willis scene? Or I was seeing a man envisaging the next moment, where concrete mixer 1. Peugeot 0. comes up.

And we side roll across the lanes. The cab and our smashed and mangled bodies and heads accompanied by the screams and sparks or rending metal as an errant concrete mixer crashes through a random other poor souls family or work team motors windscreen!

I had Never, at that point, been so f**king scared in my life!!!

Obviously; Andy managed to slow down. Do what ever one does, in that situation. We got to work. Got home. And I'm still here to talk about it ~ even while sh!tting myself at the Horrible memory.

But, yeah; Never been so scared, in a regular motoring incident, in my f**king life!

Do you think your Enid Blyton or something.

Cut to the chase, tell the f*cking experience.

TerrorFirmer

Was in Greece a few years ago on one of the islands, and the road was at an extremely high altitude in a mountainy area and actually had no guard rails at all along huge stretches - just sheer drops of several hundred feet along a very sharp incline.

We were in a rented jeep and the driver not being used to driving on the opposite side of the road kept drifting way, way too close to the edge - so close all I could see was the horrifying, eternal drop from my passenger seat and had to keep shouting at him to pull back towards the middle - once or twice we were so perilously close it felt like we were almost floating from my viewpoint.

Feel sick thinking about it.

osarusan

EDIT: Just realised that the thread is about driving...somehow managed to miss that! Anyway...


Came (somewhat) close to drowning after getting tangled in seaweed. Worst bit was my young daughter on an inflatable float above me watching my thrashing round and thinking it was me being funny.

At one point I made the deliberate decision to push her float away from me, so that if the worst came to the worst, I wouldn't be able to grab it and pull her down with me.

I'll never forget it.