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Original poster

Have you ever had a 'I can't believe I did that, I could've killed myself/someone' ?

90 replies

Mingewithafringe · 14/11/2021 18:27

I just remembered something after reading the thread about bright headlights where a poster mentioned driving on country lanes.

In my early 20s, I was driving back from Reading to the Midlands, travelling alone, at about 11pm. Sat Nav was deciding to take me on a rural route, I naively carried on thinking some main road/motorway signs would pop up eventually. I had only 50 miles left on my tank (was going to stop off at an M1 service station for a break and get some then) and low phone battery.

After about 15 miles of driving down dark country lanes with no end or life in sight, I started crapping it that I was going to get lost in the middle of nowhere with no petrol and no phone, it was pitch black, high trees everywhere, scary, poor visibility and raining. I should have stayed calm and carried on, but I decided I wanted to go back to Reading, get petrol and start again.

So I slowed down, and STOPPED in the middle of a bendy country road and did a 5 point turn. My heart was in my mouth the whole time, hoping a car wouldn't come straight into me at high speed. I was so relieved to have not caused an accident , especially as literally 20 seconds later, a car came right up behind me and they had to brake because of how fast they were going.

I've never pulled a stunt like that again! (thank god also for smart phones and Google maps)

Any other stories people want to share?

OP posts:
afaloren · 15/11/2021 09:24

I started driving the wrong way up a slip road. To this day I can’t understand how I got it into my head that was the way, but luckily I realised and managed by some miracle to reverse before any cars came the other way. I swear I’m quite a good driver, it was bizarre.

afaloren · 15/11/2021 09:26

I also walked out into traffic as a drunk and very stupid teenager. My foot got run over but I wasn’t hurt. Stupid, stupid girl. The driver was rightly furious.

dooking · 15/11/2021 09:34

I am thoroughly ashamed of this but I once drove at 120mph on the M6 very early one morning. It wasn't even for a minute or 2. I could have killed myself, left my children without a mother, killed other people, I'm horrified I did this.

I never broke the speed limit before and I haven't done since, and I have absolutely no explanation as to why I did that day. I was a professional driver, defensive driver; trained highly but for some reason I was just an absolute dick that day.

Shortpoet · 15/11/2021 09:41

I was walking gone one night through quiet roads. Felt a bit wheezy so took my inhaler, but the cap had come off inside my bag and a tiny bit a foil from a sweet wrapper was inside the airway which I didn’t realise and I breathed it in. Started choking. Genuinely thought I was going to die in the street and there was no one around to ask for help, but fortunately managed to cough it up! It was terrifying.

Peraltiago · 15/11/2021 10:07

Driving on holiday in the USA - DH and I had been quite pleased about how we were finding the driving as we'd been a bit stressed about being on the wrong side of the road, different road rules etc. But it had been fun. Until I managed to pull up an exit ramp to the freeway - we were half way up before I realised the arrows on the road were pointing towards us! I did the world's quickest U-turn and pulled on to the verge until I got my breath back. Luckily nothing came down the ramp, but how stupid?! We weren't nearly so blase about the driving for the rest of that holiday (or since! We've not hired a car again! Probably for the best).

TSSDNCOP · 15/11/2021 18:51

Not that long ago I was baking something and the mixture was all up the sides of the mixing bowl. Hmm, let's push a wooden spoon down the funnel and push it down whilst it was still on.

It was carnage in slow/lightspeed time. The spoon got grabbed into the blade and the entire bowl detonated sending shards of plastic screaming through the air.

When I was a kid, think 10, DM used to get me to climb out the loft extension window onto the roof to clean the windows whilst she held onto my arm.

MargaretThursday · 15/11/2021 19:08

Dd2 aged about 2yo had a nasty habit of discovering she could do something at an awkward moment and taking to extremes. She was sitting playing nicely in the lounge, and I was taking things up and downstairs. There was a stairgate to stop her from going into the kitchen, which she'd never gone either over or through by herself.

I heard a little bump from downstairs, and was about to go down when I glanced out of the window to see dd2 going out of the back door clutching the largest kitchen knife in her hand.
She must have climbed over the stairgate, along the kitchen surface and stood up to take the knife out of the top cupboard, got down again safely and gone outside.

I didn't dare shout or run after her as I knew she'd immediately run to get away, so might trip. I dashed downstairs, then casually walked out of the back door and sang wind the bobbin up, which meant she put the knife down to join in the actions!

She must have been planning it very carefully to be able to do it so quickly and quietly.

claymodels · 15/11/2021 19:28

@MargaretThursday

That's was seriously quick thinking you did there

notafriggingain · 15/11/2021 19:53

Got locked out so climbed a fence to gain access and fell. I woke up in hospital with a traumatic brain injury and multiple skull fractures

Nidan2Sandan · 15/11/2021 19:58

Driving through town, very busy. I had a young
twat man following behind me in his crappy corsa driving so far up my arse it was scary. So I had slowed right down as I knew he would be about to do something stupid like overtake or run into the back of me.

Anyway, thankfully I was driving slow as suddenly a toddler who was walking on the path to the left of me tripped over his dog and fell into the road. I slammed the breaks on whilst screaming and watching him disappear.

Got out my car to find him laying on the road, about 3 inches from my huge SUV wheels and his mum going hysterical.

Twat behind me had swerved when I emergency braked and run straight into a bollard. I had my kids in the back too.

All I could think was, if I'd had just been 5 seconds quicker that boy would have been under my wheels and probably dead.

BleuJay · 15/11/2021 20:03

My step daughter was being ripped off by her driving instructor so I agreed to give her some extra help in my car and I got her insured and off we went.

She already had over 50 driving lessons but the instructor was useless.

She was doing ok with me but I did have to tell her to speed up a bit and not hug the kerb but her confidence grew as we continued.

“Turn right at the roundabout.”

She got in the right lane and I was please she was doing well until she actually turned right at the roundabout instead of going around it and taking the third exit.

I yanked the steering wheel and we ended up in the middle of the roundabout, the car now stalled, her wailing that I had told her to turn right and the sound of the horn from lorry we had narrowly missed ringing in my ears.

ImInStealthMode · 15/11/2021 20:03

Went to run out between 2 parked cars to catch a bus at the other side of the road, as a car came flying past (far far too fast for the location). out of nowhere. I stopped dead about 3 inches from being in front of him and he slammed the brakes on. It was years ago but still gives me the absolute horrors.

helpfulperson · 15/11/2021 20:10

Spotted my bus at the busstop and ran across the front of it from the other side of the road just as he started to pull away. I got a right earful of the driver, I must have given him a heart attack suddenly appearing in front of his windscreen..

decadentspendthrift · 15/11/2021 20:18

I drove back from the pub once after 4 double g&ts and god knows how much coke. When I got to my friend's house I was so out of it that I couldn't park and had to leave my car in the middle of the road in her cul-de-sac.

IWishToAnswerInTheAffirmative · 15/11/2021 20:34

Jumped on a bus from Edinburgh to London as a (young) student to meet some random guy off the internet. Told absolutely no one. If something had happened to me, no one would have known where I was or who I was with.

Now as sheer dumb luck would have it, it turned out that he was gorgeous and lovely (and not a mad axe murderer) and we had a really amazing weekend. But the thought of my daughters doing similar when they grow up makes me go cold 😳😳😳

MarshaBradyo · 15/11/2021 20:35

@BleuJay

My step daughter was being ripped off by her driving instructor so I agreed to give her some extra help in my car and I got her insured and off we went.

She already had over 50 driving lessons but the instructor was useless.

She was doing ok with me but I did have to tell her to speed up a bit and not hug the kerb but her confidence grew as we continued.

“Turn right at the roundabout.”

She got in the right lane and I was please she was doing well until she actually turned right at the roundabout instead of going around it and taking the third exit.

I yanked the steering wheel and we ended up in the middle of the roundabout, the car now stalled, her wailing that I had told her to turn right and the sound of the horn from lorry we had narrowly missed ringing in my ears.

Oh my will remember this if I ever teach anyone to drive
HoseMeDownWithHolyWater · 15/11/2021 20:52

My friend once drove us along country lanes while smoking a spliff.

Seemed perfectly safe at the time.

Littleelffriend · 15/11/2021 20:55

Drove 40 miles home at 4am having taken god knows how many es . With my friends in the car on a dual carriageway

MonicaGellerBing · 15/11/2021 21:19

At 18 year old got in my little fiesta, drove from Newcastle to Telford to stay for a week in a B and B with a bloke I met off the internet. Anything could have happened to me. I had no breakdown cover either and this was back when there were no sat navs so I'd printed the directions from AA route planner!

When I look back now 20 years on I can't believe the risks I took that week. I dread to think....

Junobug · 15/11/2021 21:23

I met friends for a girls weekend in a part of the country I don't know at all. It turned really cold and snowy whilst we were there. The roads were really icy on the morning we left and to get home, I just sat naved home. The map told me to take a right, which I did up a small hill. Only it turned a corner up a properly steep hill, covered in ice with sheer drops to the side. I couldn't stop if I wanted to, I didn't want to risk turning round, so I just had to try and keep going. I have never been so scared in my life.

Cheeseandlobster · 15/11/2021 21:29

@Junobug

I met friends for a girls weekend in a part of the country I don't know at all. It turned really cold and snowy whilst we were there. The roads were really icy on the morning we left and to get home, I just sat naved home. The map told me to take a right, which I did up a small hill. Only it turned a corner up a properly steep hill, covered in ice with sheer drops to the side. I couldn't stop if I wanted to, I didn't want to risk turning round, so I just had to try and keep going. I have never been so scared in my life.
Oh my goodness. That sounds so frightening
riotlady · 15/11/2021 21:30

Once I was waiting outside of a club for a taxi with one of my friends. It was really busy and a guy came up to us and asked if we were waiting for a taxi and we said yes, and he said he was our taxi but it was too busy so he’d parked a bit further away. It was a super busy Main Street so to our drunken minds it made sense and we followed him. We got further and further from the busy main area, past plenty of reasonable parking spots, to a really dark car park where we could see another man by a running car. My friend whispered to me “this doesn’t feel right” so we apologised and ran away, but if she hadn’t said anything I would have probably gone into that car park. Our actual, licensed taxi turned up on the busy Main Street 5 minutes later.

OhGiveUp · 15/11/2021 21:56

After returning from visiting my friends and family in my home country with my children, I drove from Calais to my home, which is a long drive.
At the final roundabout near to my home, for some reason I drove round it anti clockwise, rather than clockwise, then drove the couple of miles down the dual carriageway on the wrong side.
Fortunately, it was around 03.00 and no traffic.
I still break out in a cold sweat over that over 30 years later.

carlydooly · 15/11/2021 22:53

Similar story to @Junobug - avoiding massive motorway tailbacks by following sat nav diversion on a long journey home with the dcs. Sat nav regularly tries to kill me and this time it took us via the arse end of nowhere. It was snowy and when we ended up going up a remote hill with new snow- I did a 3 point turn and turned back as even in a 4 x 4 it was a nightmare.

Came back down the hill back to a junction with the main road and the ice made the brakes lock and we slid right through the red light down on to the main road. It could have been absolutely horrendous but by sheer chance there was no traffic waiting. It still makes me feel sick thinking about it.

ImInStealthMode · 16/11/2021 08:05

@MonicaGellerBing

At 18 year old got in my little fiesta, drove from Newcastle to Telford to stay for a week in a B and B with a bloke I met off the internet. Anything could have happened to me. I had no breakdown cover either and this was back when there were no sat navs so I'd printed the directions from AA route planner!

When I look back now 20 years on I can't believe the risks I took that week. I dread to think....

Similar to this, I flew to France to spend a week staying with another young girl I'd met on the internet for a ski holiday.

Luckily she was indeed a young girl, all was fine and we're still friends 15 years on!