Terrifying drivers

[XmisterIS]

My Mother is one ... I've spent a fair amount of time over the last three weeks being ferried to the Dr's and supermarket because of illness and inability to drive. I've not spent that much time being subjected to her driving since before I was old enough to drive!

She passed her test (just) when she was 45 and her driving hasn't improved since ...

For example, she has no spatial awareness and just doesn't notice what is right in front of her. We will go hurtling towards a vehicle that is stopped, with it's brake lights on, and has been that way for about five seconds, then she'll suddenly slam on the brakes and exclaim, "My God! Drivers these days! Why the hell has that idiot stopped in the middle of the road all of a sudden like that!" Meanwhile, I am hanging onto the seat with white knuckles, thinking, "Oh God! Oh Jesus Christ! Oh Mary! Oh Lord Jesus, save me!" (etc)

And parking ... forget it! There are certain places that she avoids because she can't park in the car park - she finds it too difficult!!

The other day we were behind a kid on a moped (and I mean RIGHT behind him) - I said, "It's probably best to hang back a little, give him some room, we're dangerously close". I didn't just say it once, I said it about five times. Then I gave up and closed my eyes and began praying again ... !!

It's bad ... !!

Anyone you know who's driving is quite simply astonishing??

 

[MacB]

you've just described my Mum, it's only the skill of those around her that saves the situation. She is, however, convinced that she is an excellent and considerate driver. The continuous stream of new bumps and scratches on here car would indicate otherwise

One of our biggest rows ever was when I was caught unawares when she made one of her regular claims to be an excellent driver. I snorted with derision before I could help myself....big mistake

 

[Night Train]

I thought from the thread title it was some sort of new game to play on the road.

I reckon really bad drivers shouldn't be allowed to continue driving hence I like the idea of regular retesting.

I do avoid being in a car with a known bad driver but I have had them as passengers. One, a few years ago, would go into blind panic when I exceed 30mph on a national speed limit country road and there was a distant sheep in a field that could have, just possibly, done a superman fly by and landed in front of the car to eat a blade of grass that was on the white line.
She would also panic if driven at over 40mph on a motorway!

Also had one that couldn't under stand why I 'continued to drive at a red traffic light'. It was because there was nothing between me and the stop line 10 car lengths away.

 

[summerdays]

An ex-boss of mine.... who also used to like having a quick drink before hand... now his driving wasn't brilliant before he had the drink or two!!! On one memorable trip to visit a site, I shut my eyes most of the way on the motorway in the heavy rain and was absolutely dreading the journey back. One mile after setting off my prayers were answered when his car broke down and they couldn't come out for another hour. I pleaded the need to get home for my kids and legged it to the station before it would start again.

Then I had a very awkward conversation where I told him I was a really nervous passenger and much preferred travelling by train so that I could prepare for the meeting. That was the last time I travelled in a car with him.

 

[Globalti]

My agent in Hungary is a nightmare driver; she yaks constantly on her mobile and has zero mechanical sympathy for the car. To my certain knowledge she has had three bad accidents, two when the car has just left the road with no other vehicle involved and one in which she caused a pile up in the middle of Budapest with three other cars and a bus. It took the Police two years to decide what to do about that one but she got off pretty lightly.

Sometimes my son asks me to "drive like Judit" and if the road is clear I show him a couple of her more characteristic moves but to be honest it's difficult to make yourself actually drive badly.

 

[XmisterIS]

I wonder if the problem is to do with learning to drive later on in life - I learned when I was 19, never come even close to an accident that was my fault (I've had two that weren't even remotely my fault ). My mum learned when she was 45, she's never quite got the hang of it (to put it mildly!)

 

[Mr Phoebus]

I used to have a lift to work from a friend, but after telling him numerous times to back off from the car in front and telling him
that was a bloody close pass on that cyclist which I got the usual "I was miles off" I started commuting by bike.
If he'd had an accident and expected me to back him up he'd have been sorely mistaken.

 

[MissTillyFlop]

My dad is awful.

The motorway in his car is a nightmare. Apparently his car doesn't go below 85 mph and if anyone else has the audacity to do so, he will tail them with his hazard lights on "to encourange them to move over".

 

[Night Train]

I wonder if the problem is to do with learning to drive later on in life - I learned when I was 19, never come even close to an accident that was my fault (I've had two that weren't even remotely my fault ). My mum learned when she was 45, she's never quite got the hang of it (to put it mildly!)

I don't know, I suspect it is that it is just to do with mechanical and road compentancy.

Older age might also have an effect in some
My Dad was a reasonable good driver until his late 60's, then he started getting gradually more dangerous. A few years ago I had to stop him driving completely as he just couldn't cope with the amount of traffic on the roads.

 

[MontyVeda]

There's two people I've known who driving habits have been so poor I've had to take action.

The first was so nervous behind the wheel I advised them (after a very scary round trip to Manchester) to not drive if they can't do it confidently... thankfully they haven't driven since.

The second, confident but took far too many risky moves to be considered anywhere near safe... After several long distance journeys with them, I now refuse to be a passenger in their car.

edit... there was another who's drink driving was getting so bad I was " that far from calling the police and giving them his address just after he'd (yet again) drove home well over the limit. Thankfully he can no longer drive either.

 

[MacB]

I wonder if the problem is to do with learning to drive later on in life - I learned when I was 19, never come even close to an accident that was my fault (I've had two that weren't even remotely my fault ). My mum learned when she was 45, she's never quite got the hang of it (to put it mildly!)

I don't know but my Mum was about the same age as yours when she learned. I still remember her taking a friend and I, we we're around 13ish, into Croydon and we parked in a multi storey car park. It was my Dads office one so she had his pass and the place was almost deserted. I'm sat in the front as we drive towards one of those massive pillars, it genuinely didn't cross my mind that I needed to say anything. I mean you can't miss seeing a floor to ceiling concrete pillar that's about 4 feet wide. Yep, hit it, centre of the bonnet and that was just the start of her career of car park incidents.

 

[TheDoctor]

I once reversed our new car into...a friends new car
Took me a long time to hear the last of that.
I once saw someone drop the front wheels into deep mud (well, river bottom really) while trying to turn round on a concrete slipway. At that point, they discovered the car was FWD, not RWD as they had supposed...

 

[Wades]

Hands down the MIL is by far the worst i've ever known. In addition to numerous near death experiences on the motorway, one of my favourite incidents was when approaching a learner driver doing the 'reverse' section of a three point turn she found the accelerator (first time in months) and floored it through the quickly closing gap in a true 'Indiana Jones/ under boulder door/ grab for hat' stylee.