Your Most Dangerous Driving Experience

Buddy and I tried driving up it one March. The top 4 miles were blocked off due to high winds and snow. I remember coming over one slight hill about 3-4 miles from the bottom and the car was shaking from the blast of wind. It was ridiculous.
Yeah, from what I understand, it’s common for that upper part to be closed.

When we were out there, I had my 2016 WRX, and wanted to drive the road, but the upper part was closed on the day we wanted to do it.
 
We got there right in the beginning to set up BIAP. It was the "wild wild west" there back in May 2003, this was before the 180-day rotations.....
There was still the rumor of a random lion or tiger roaming around VBC from the zoo at BIAP when we got there. Lol
 
Yeah, from what I understand, it’s common for that upper part to be closed.

When we were out there, I had my 2016 WRX, and wanted to drive the road, but the upper part was closed on the day we wanted to do it.
It was neat to see the peak with the wind as we drove towards the bottom. You could see the snow being blown off. The Thanos scenes when he snaps his fingers reminds me of it lol
 
Here's another memory I've shut out of my mind:

A 2005-style Impala tried to keep up with me as I attempted to (legally) pass on a two lane country road with snow drifts when they were doing about 30mph. I guess they didn't like the fact that 5 cars already overtook them so when it was my turn they sped up enough to force me back behind them with a blind turn coming ahead. My second attempt I accelerated to 60mph as I passed them, they tried to do the same, lost control and fishtailed into a train signal on the passenger B pillar and the passenger ended up dying en route or at the hospital.

I've done a lot of dumb, dangerous, and ballsy things in the Evo but this one takes the cake for my *** moments I have directly experienced.
 
I drive a tractor trailer fuel tanker for a living. I've had so many butt clinching events behind the wheel of that thing that I don't even know where to start with which one would be the worst.

I encounter complete morons daily...and often several times a day. I've been lucky though. I have over 1.5 million incident free miles under my belt. My best game plan is to just assume every other driver on the road just got their license, are dyslexic and intoxicated. The amount of distracted drivers on the roads is extremely alarming to say the least. Defensive driving is a way of life for me.

It's not just passenger vehicles either. I see my share of stupid among other fellow truckers too. I have gone as far to tell a few of those guys after their display of poor judgment, that I'm not mad at them....but the Jack waggon that gave them a license.
 
A couple of time towing the travel trailer. Once I was coming around a blind curve on a two lane double yellow road. I was going 45 and a Mustang was passing a car on the curve. I stood on the brakes, trailer brakes locked up, he got around the car. He was so close I could barely see him over the hood. I can't believe I didn't hit him.
 
I drive a tractor trailer fuel tanker for a living. I've had so many butt clinching events behind the wheel of that thing that I don't even know where to start with which one would be the worst.

I encounter complete morons daily...and often several times a day. I've been lucky though. I have over 1.5 million incident free miles under my belt. My best game plan is to just assume every other driver on the road just got their license, are dyslexic and intoxicated. The amount of distracted drivers on the roads is extremely alarming to say the least. Defensive driving is a way of life for me.

It's not just passenger vehicles either. I see my share of stupid among other fellow truckers too. I have gone as far to tell a few of those guys after their display of poor judgment, that I'm not mad at them....but the Jack waggon that gave them a license.
I want to thank you and your brothers and sisters on the road. You drive the interstates for a living. I’ve been in a couple of near-misses over the years and a couple come to mind where I’m still here because a truck driver was more cautious than the rest of traffic, left more space in front, didn’t drive like everyone else.

thank you.

m
 
I can think of some other ones, but an early one still sticks out.

In high school, my friend's brother drove three of us somewhere in his little underpowered car. Two-lane, rural road, 60mph, he passed a car while going up a blind hill. If a car had been coming from the other direction, we'd all be dead. It was a helpless feeling having my life in the hands of someone so reckless.

When I am a passenger now, I don't hesitate to tell whoever is driving to stop f'n with their phone or whatever other dumb thing they might be doing. If someone is going to kill me, I'm going to make them put more effort into it than that.
 
rubicon with new bfg at ko tires. thought i was invincible driving up north idaho logging roads. hit the end of the road where the logging company was working at about 30 mph, thought i was headed onto fresh powder but turned out to be a sheet of ice. jeep slid into a berm plowed up by the loggers and hung there overlooking a steep dropoff.

at that point i took out the chains and drove over them to free the jeep from the berm. if the berm hadn’t been there i would have been toast.
 
Snow and ice storm, on a rural 2-lane highway moving with traffic at about 35mph. Straight. Flat. Low visibility. 3" of ice/snow on the road.

Then I see a car 90 degrees to us directly in front of me. Cars to my right, can't move over. Braking not possible. I can still see the big "O" of the kid's mouth as he watches me approach out the side back window.
 
Then I see the snow rooster tail as his dad hits the gas. The car scoots into the grass median into 7 or so inches of snow.

Missed them by less than 10'. I was 22. Lesson learned.
 
Some guy tailgating me on the highway, closer than anyone's freakin business, I mean literally 3 feet distance at 60+ MPH. And I was in the slow lane... what gives bruh? My mistake was a mild brake check to get him to back off. Turns out that was a big mistake because he turns into a crazy person who spends the next 8 miles chasing me down the freeway trying to run me off the road while throwing random objects at me from their window. This insanity included a move where he kept inching me into the highway barrier so I had to slow down, eventually stopping on the shoulder. Our vehicles never actually contacted one another, but once we were stopped he got out of his car screaming and waving his arms -- he is a huge Semoan dude with even bigger anger issues. Fortunately it appears he did not have a firearm at the moment. So I put it in reverse and punch it to get away from him walking toward my car on the freeway shoulder. Fortunately there was a break in traffic so I put it into drive and took off. He didn't catch me, but that was super gnarly, nucking futs. This was 25 years ago and I still don't brake check people anymore.
 
I’m 47. Have had a few scares. One was southbound on I24 towards Nashville. It had been snowing for hours and traffic was moving startlingly fast, and it was dense. The snow had been compacted to a 4” thick ice sheet, and it was like driving over 4” river rock. I was driving a fwd 2004 s60, and we had been crunching through snow for 8 hours at this point. We’re doing about 30 mph on a downhill grade when a RWD challenger in front of me loses it and starts spinning. There’s a semi behind me, maybe 40’ back. I feather my brakes and watch the rear view. When the semi tried to brake, he’d start to jackknife, and he’d come off the brakes, and try again, repeating. he can’t stop. so my lane is snarling, and I’m going to pounded from behind by a semi on a downhill run as we would be hitting a spinning car in front of me. No fun. left lane is also tight, and now moving faster, and i cant get an opening. At the last moment I stomp the gas, shoot the gap, lane change hard left, and try to correct.... figure at worst I’ll beach it in the median, sliding... but somehow, though the rear swung left off the road into the median, those little skinny tires had bite and we held the front end in my lane and straightened out. It all happened so quickly, I’m not sure what happened behind me.

an hour later we drove in awe as car after car (pickup after pickup, actually), were seen piled up on the shoulders from the ice, passengers long since having abandoned them. We kept moving at 20 and made it home many hours later.
 
Some guy tailgating me on the highway, closer than anyone's freakin business, I mean literally 3 feet distance at 60+ MPH. And I was in the slow lane... what gives bruh? My mistake was a mild brake check to get him to back off. Turns out that was a big mistake because he turns into a crazy person who spends the next 8 miles chasing me down the freeway trying to run me off the road while throwing random objects at me from their window. This insanity included a move where he kept inching me into the highway barrier so I had to slow down, eventually stopping on the shoulder. Our vehicles never actually contacted one another, but once we were stopped he got out of his car screaming and waving his arms -- he is a huge Semoan dude with even bigger anger issues. Fortunately it appears he did not have a firearm at the moment. So I put it in reverse and punch it to get away from him walking toward my car on the freeway shoulder. Fortunately there was a break in traffic so I put it into drive and took off. He didn't catch me, but that was super gnarly, nucking futs. This was 25 years ago and I still don't brake check people anymore.
Road rage is by far the scariest stuff I encountered. It was bad around the DC area. its one thing to have a near miss. To see folks who want to harm the other, possessing a 4,000 (or more) pound hammer, is terrifying more than once.
 
Still recall taking a Rabbit Bus ride to Baguio when I was in the PI. Narrow mountain roads with steep drop-offs. Those drivers were crazy.
 
Anytime I have to share the road with the fine drivers of the DC, Virginia, and Maryland area. We can't go a week here without a road being closed for hours due to a wreck. They could get into a wreck on a perfectly straight road in perfectly clear weather.
 
For the past two weeks I've had a premonition that I was about to get into an accident. I've tried to be extra alert. It happened today.

Driving to work on the I-10 in Phoenix, going 70-mph I heard a POP, then a few seconds later I suddenly lost control of the car. Fishtailed over three lanes and did one or two donuts in heavy traffic before coming to a stop on the left shoulder. It was a major miracle that there were no collisions; no one was hurt or killed. The right rear tire had blown apart.

Adding to the miracle, this short section of highway has an extra-wide shoulder on the left with a guy wire fence divider. A hundred yards further on where the shoulder narrows, I would have smashed into a concrete wall. The only damage to the car is some scratched paint and a broken tail light cover from hitting the guy wire.

The tire was purchased in October 2019 and only had 22,000 miles on it. It might have hit some kind of road debris, but it's a Cooper CS5 Grand Touring 235/55RR. Not part of the Cooper recall, but it's close enough to make me wonder...
 
Had a slightly hairy drive the other day...drove up the Kancamagus Highway and of course it started snowing - like white out conditions - as I’m at the top with a seven mile downward grade to follow. And of course I had a guy right up my butt, pushing me faster and faster.

Then a day later I was on RT. 16 - which can be deadly even in the middle of the summer - and the same thing happened. White out conditions. I mean, it’s the end of April!! Doesn’t matter up there, I guess.

And one more...Pinkham and Crawford Notch. Up there and the same thing. Snow.

All this in two days of driving.
 
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