Scary Driving Experiences

[RuiAce]

I was in a 90km/hr zone. You'd think that by the time you're driving at 90km/hr there won't be any more traffic lights. Or at least, they'd stay green for a long period of time when you're driving at night.

Turns out I was wrong. As I got closer to the traffic lights, they suddenly became yellow and I was still at the 90 speed. I had no clue how long the lights were gonna be yellow so judging by the distance, I decided I had to slow down. But I was at freaking 90, so I slammed the brakes down so hard...

...to the point that my hazard lights went on without me even clicking them. The hazard lights went on by themselves. Holy fuck.

Fortunately, I glanced at my mirror a few times and saw that there were no cars behind me, so I didn't risk a crash. Geez though...

[TheAspiringDoc]

In 50km/h zone in town and a guy parked on the left threw his door open and jumped out straight in front of me (maybe 5m?)
I didn't have time to brake so I went into the lane on my right without even checking if I was going to hit anybody 

[Aaron]

Driving on the Eastern Freeway/Eastlink in Melbourne on a daily basis.

I have to be ready to dodge anything. People cutting me off, people not knowing how to merge using a freeway on-ramp, cars extremely close to you from behind, people doing half the speed limit in the "fast lane" (right hand lane used for overtaking only), lane surfing (e.g. one person realising they have to exit to the left when they're all the way over to the right 3-4 lanes over and have to quickly cut traffic), trucks side-by-side next to you wedging you in where the only direction you can go is forward... list goes on.

[Mada438]

Was tailgated by a guy for a while and i slowed down deliberately so he would back off. Instead as soon as he could, he changed lanes, drove up next to me , swearing his head off at me through the window, then accelerated in front of me, changed back into my lane AND SLAMMED ON HIS BRAKES DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF ME FOR NO REASON AT ALL and i almost rear ended him at 90km/h. Lucky, i managed to avoid hitting him, and he sped off once again

[abbeyrose]

Whilst I wasn't driving myself (though I was an occupant in the car) I can recall an incident when my mum was driving and we were driving on a typical outer-regional road. A small hire bus behind us had been tailgating us for 100 metres or so (so in hindsight they were probably too close to see the brake lights) and, as our car indicated, slowed down and was about to turn into a driveway on the opposite side of the road, the bus overtook our car. That really scared me tbh.

I live in an area that attracts a lot of international tourists and I've lost count of the amount of times I've been driving and had someone coming towards me because they were driving on the wrong side of the road (these are roads that have quite a few blind corners). As an L plater about to go for my Ps, that too scares me immensely.

[EEEEEEP]

Pretty scary story.

I was on the way home after work (on the M5) .. .and my coffee lost its effect. Nearly rammed into the back of a semi  (rip)......

I knew I needed a nap cause I was yawning an hour and half before finishing time.

So yeah... close call (safe to say I napped after that)

(don't drive while fatigued :,))

[RuiAce]

So, this literally happened just now (and by that I mean at 11:31).

I was driving in a couple 50 zones trying to get home. No worries. And then suddenly out of nowhere a most likely feral, but unexpectedly COMPLETELY RANDOM GREY CAT appears and I slam down my brakes again. I swear, it was trying to literally go right under my car!!!

I didn’t feel like I rolled over anything so I’m pretty sure I didn’t kill it. But woah wtf, I nearly harmed an animal and it wasn’t even my fault. Gave me one massive heart attack.

[EEEEEEP]

So, this literally happened just now (and by that I mean at 11:31).

I was driving in a couple 50 zones trying to get home. No worries. And then suddenly out of nowhere a most likely feral, but unexpectedly COMPLETELY RANDOM GREY CAT appears and I slam down my brakes again. I swear, it was trying to literally go right under my car!!!

I didn’t feel like I rolled over anything so I’m pretty sure I didn’t kill it. But woah wtf, I nearly harmed an animal and it wasn’t even my fault. Gave me one massive heart attack.

Suddenly breaking is actually one of the most dangerous things that you can do in a car (especially if there's traffic). I've seen it happen before ^^

It can cause a mini pileup :,)

It would physically be safer for more parties if you just kept going forward (not that I condone killing things or anything).

[RuiAce]

Suddenly breaking is actually one of the most dangerous things that you can do in a car (especially if there's traffic). I've seen it happen before ^^

It can cause a mini pileup :,)

It would physically be safer for more parties if you just kept going forward (not that I condone killing things or anything).

It was way too late at night; there were no cars coming at me or behind me at the time

Although the cat only came into view out of nowhere, I'm fairly sure I would've reacted a bit more quickly in daytime conditions anyway.

[Yertle the Turtle]

When driving a couple of months after getting my L's on a 70km/h road, a fire engine with lights and siren on came out of an intersection behind me in my lane. It was the right one, and there were 3 lanes, but what I didn't know was that just at that point the left lane had to merge and became a long line of parking. There just happened to be a big Nissan 4WD in the left-most lane, and as I began to move into the middle lane, he did as well, and he only noticed when we were less than half a metre apart, and since the only way he could get out of the way would have been to charge into a row of parked cars, he hooted, and I quickly got out of the way, but it felt way too close for someone only just started driving.

Another bad experience was out driving up near Halls Gap at night and within 20 m of me a kangaroo started to hop towards me, though luckily it got off the road before I reached it, but still a little scary.

What does anyone think about driverless cars? I feel like they will have a problem with roos, and therefore might not be feasible for Australia, but on the whole they could be a good idea.

[PhoenixxFire]

So I was a passenger. My mum was driving. We had stopped at some lights on a smallish road, but it was two lanes each way. This woman (she was young, maybe 17-20?) comes up, and stops at the pedestrian lights that had just turned red (to go across in front of us). Then she decides that shes going to cross anyway and starts running across as our lights turned green. We were in the left lane and had just started moving when she went past. My mum hit the brakes and we didn't hit her, but a car came from behind us in the right lane, and didn't slow down because our lights were green at that point, and hit her. Luckily he must have seen her because he hit his brakes and she was shaken up but ok.

We pulled over and my mum gave the driver her number in case it went to court, an ambulance was called, and the woman's mum shows up and starts going on like 'who hit my daughter' like she hadn't just run across the road.

It was strange though, like she stopped, then ran across a good 10-20 seconds later.


I don't even want to talk about the times my sister (learner) has almost changed lanes into another car.

[Shadowxo]

I was driving into uni (L plates), nearly there. There were two lanes each way and I was in the right lane, stopped at a red traffic light. This FWD then comes up in the left lane, hardly slows and then does a right turn into incoming traffic going the opposite direction... They didn't crash amazingly.

Also just a few weeks ago I was parked on the side of a freeway. I had to get from 0 to 110km/h and change lanes twice (while accelerating) and try to not get hit by cars also going at 110km/h.

[Yertle the Turtle]

When I had just started driving I tried to make a u-turn from the left-hand right turn lane. There were two lanes to turn right, and I went to do a u-turn from the left-hand one. Hint: never do that!!!

[Bell9565]

Had just merged onto a freeway at 100km/h during peak hour and all of a sudden a van infront of me slowed down considerably and changed lanes and then I saw that a dog had escaped and ran across the road (on literally the last place I'd expect to see a dog) so I had to somehow change lanes very very quickly (i was going at like 70km/h trying to get into a lane going at 100km/h) and I did but I only just missed hitting a car but I didn't hit the dog so that all that matters.

[Poet]

I was merging onto the highway on a 100 km loop (L-plates, maybe 40 hours? Still a newbie) when I big truck with two trailers came up behind me and tried to overtake me WHILE I WAS MERGING. He tried to move in front of me, but I think he forgot about his last trailer because I was smack bang where it was going. Scared the bejesus out of me, but I just had to put on my breaks. Went straight back home after that one, though. XD