Drivers Education stories

[Thinker]

So what are the funniest and most outrageous drivers ed stories you've heard or experienced?

 

Here's one to get you going:

(from the NPS Morning Report)

 

On October 16th, park hydrologist Joe Meiman and intern Nathan Talley saw a silver U.S. government sedan parked in the middle of the Good Springs – Maple Springs Road. When the driver got out, he had a long neck beer bottle in his hand. Meiman and Talley reported the incident to rangers, who determined that the vehicle had been assigned to the Great Onyx Job Corps Center and that the operator was Dale Decker, the center’s contract driver education instructor. Rangers contacted Decker and the two minor Job Corps students who were with him. All three had been consuming alcohol, as evidenced by observation and portable breathalyzer testing. The minors provided a detailed statement of events, which was corroborated by the co-owner of the liquor store where the alcohol was purchased. The alcohol was purchased on government time and the store’s co-owner identified both Decker and the government vehicle he was driving. After purchasing the alcohol, Decker and the students returned to the park, where Decker gave the beverages to students. Decker was charged with a sale/gift of alcoholic beverages to minors under 21 (mandatory appearance) and is under suspension without pay. The minors were cited for underage possession of alcoholic beverages (mandatory appearance). Additional charges are pending against Decker. The case ranger is Eddie Wells, who was assisted by chief ranger Wayne Elliott and rangers Rich Caldwell and David Alexander.

[submitted by Wayne Elliott, Chief Ranger]

 

[adventuregal]

When I was taking my drivers test, I noticed that my tester was quite annoyed and looked a little jumpy. I thought it was my driving so I was trying extra had to make sure I did everything correctly. Well, I was so busy focusing on staying between the lines and using my turn signal that I didn't realize we were being followed by another car the whole time. Finally, the tester made me pull over in a parking lot and the car behind us pulled over too. He made me stay in the car while he went out to talk to them. I could hear him yelling, etc and needless to say I was quite confused as to what was going on. He got back in the car and the other car drove off. I come to find out that all the foreign students from the college in town always tried to follow the tester around while he was giving the test so they could memorize the route and pass... And almost all of them STILL fail on the first try!!!

[catbirdseat]

I flunked my first drivers test when I was 16. The tester used to love to take everyone past this blind alley to see if they would slow down. Of course you couldn't see the alley until you had gone past it and it was too late. So just about everyone lost points on the alley. I think you were allowed two gaffes. My other one was not getting far enough right before making a right turn. Anyway, I passed the second time around.

[iain]

The driving test where I was from involved going through first a 4-way stop and then a 2-way stop intersection. Of course, the 4-way one is marked as such but the 2-way one just says "Stop". Anyway, my brother does fine on the 4-way, then assumes the next one is 4-way too. The instructor actually reached across and yelled stop in a panicked voice to avoid an accident.

 

The checkbox for "drivers must engage in expert driving to avoid you" was checked.

[k44]

during drivers ed we were practicing passing on an empty road, we would change lanes, accelerate, and change back. a cop pulled up on me while i was practicing passing flicked the lights and siren. we pulled over and the cop came up to the window looking very confused and asked for my license (which i had forgotten) and what we were doing. the drivers ed teacher explained that we were just practicing and this was a drivers ed class (if he couldnt tell by the magnetic signs on the car and dominos pizza like sign on the roof).

pretty funny experience, although i was scared out of my mind at first.

[ketch]

I took drivers ed as a summer class. about the third week there started to be several accidents and near accidents in some of the cars. The following monday they made an announcment that the girls were to refrain from halter tops and short shorts. They said it was "too distracting for adequate instruction." The accidents went down as well the eye candy.

[Dan_Harris]

When I was taking my behind the wheel test I had come up to a red light at a controlled intersection. The tester said to make a right. I watched the traffic for a spot to pull in and also checked the guy swaying on the corner. When the traffic was such that I could execute my right turn the dude on the corner fell into the gutter, pretty sure he was drunk. Anyway I got dinged for failure to yeild the right of way to a pedestrian. Never mind the fact he was walking and was out of the traffic lane.

[chelle]

My parents had this huge station wagon when I was younger. The drivers tester took me to one of the narrowest streets in town and told me to do a 3 point turn. I had to do a 4 point turn and got marked down for it.

[murraysovereign]

Friend of mine in High School was taking her exam for the 2nd time, having failed on fairly minor technical points the first time. So, she was pretty nervous, not wanting to screw up again. In her somewhat distracted state, she ran a stop sign and t-boned an RCMP cruiser

 

Oh, well, third time lucky. She's actually a pretty good driver, just wasn't very good at tests I guess.

[David_Parker]

To learn parallel parking, I set up lawn chairs in my driveway. I practiced and practiced until I had it down. On my driving test on a quiet urban street, the instructor found a nice spot between two parked cars and told me to parallel park between them. But they were on the wrong side of the road! But not really because I had practiced parking with the chairs on MY side of the car, not the passenger side! DUH! I panicked and cut too hard and my rt front bumper struck the left rear of the front car ever so lightly. There was no damage to either car. The instructor stopped the test right then and there, filled out a form to leave on the struck car saying it been struck during a drivers test and then we went directly back to the exam building. I passed the second try.

[ketch]

On the subject of drivers tests we did have one that was funny in retrospect only. My youngest was a pretty good driver. After a bit of a trip we stopped off to do his test on the way home. He was a little nervous and as he was supposed to pull out he put the truck in reverse instead of forward and promptly backed up without watching where he was going. The inspector stopped the test right there and said please come back again. He walked a short distance and then came back and tells my son " by the way your dads license tabs are expired wer'e going to have to write him a ticket." I was able to get a trip permit for us to make it home. We had a laugh and decided that the trip was longer than we thought.

He did great on the second try.

[lummox]

i never learned the cool stuff in drivers ed. had to get my license and borrow some ladys car to perfect the four wheel drift and the parking brake 180 turn and the 360 on rainslick highways. fuk yea.

[Thinker]

The only thing I remember from drivers ed is the day we learned to drive on the interstate. The instructor stuck me in the drivers seat and another couple of kids in the back seat, and directed us toward the interstate. Once we were cruising down the road he settled back into his seat and dozed off! (keep in mind this is in the middle of the Great Plains with absolutley nothing around) About 45 minutes later we made some noise and woke him up. He had us take the next exit, change drivers, and head back toward home. He noted that the furthest he'd ever gotten before waking up was Milford, another 30 miles down the road.