How serious are you about driving safely? How many crashes have you had?

[deluxx]

I've felt terror twice while driving. Both times I was speeding. I don't speed anymore. I'm typically under the limit in the right lane. I have done stopwatch testing, with traffic in the DC/Baltimore area it is completely pointless to speed. I always stay safe and I always keep moving, stopping is dangerous.

I've clipped a taxi cab, in a taxi cab. (gave him $50 to forget about it)
I've hit a pole and broke a headlight (crap kia, no defrost, low speed at a drive-thru bank)
I've trimmed many trees and rubbed several curbs (in 26' trucks)
I've backed into many tight spots in a truck and touched the wall/curb/dock/dumpster.
I have a CDL and a perfect driving record...
I break some laws now and again but always safety first.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

The most serious accident I had resulted only in a dent and some paint chips on the trunk lid of an Opel Corsa. Nothing else, but it required a tow truck to take it out of the hole it fell into...

[PaleMelanesian]

Yeah, the backup camera is pretty useless for backing up a trailer. All you see is the front end of it blocking all your view of what's going on.

I'm talking about hitching it up. Lining up the ball and hitch. With the camera you can do it in one go, instead of, "get out and look, get back in, back up a little, get out and look, get back in, back up a little more, get out and look...".

[Xist]

We were always supposed to back up with another Soldier ground-guiding us, especially hooking up to a trailer, but I couldn't make them, so I usually did it myself, which was fun when the hitch was at least twenty-five feet behind me.

[Fat Charlie]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Oversteering a normal FWD vehicle out of control takes a fair amount of dumbassery (in my experience)!

Accelerating up a concrete on ramp that tightens near the end. In the wet.

If the first time I'd ever seen that on ramp hadn't been after some rain, I'd have to agree with you. I've done many dumb things in my time, but I don't take blame for that one.

[Vman455]

Originally Posted by Fat Charlie

Accelerating up a concrete on ramp that tightens near the end. In the wet.

If the first time I'd ever seen that on ramp hadn't been after some rain, I'd have to agree with you. I've done many dumb things in my time, but I don't take blame for that one.

Lift-throttle oversteer's a *****, ain't it?

Or used to be. It's been fairly well dialed out of most FWD cars today.

[Daschicken]

I am very serious about driving safely, but I also corner hard and like to have fun. Have not had the joy of doing any track days yet, tracks make it incredibly difficult to sign up for track days. There really should be a cheap track available for people in their everyday cars to keep racing off the street, and let people build their hard driving skills, but nah...That makes too much sense. Also, a legal way to let people top out their vehicles would be nice too.

Of my 6 years of driving so far, only one "crash", I backed into a large metal door for a dumpster enclosure. The door was only a few inches wide, so there was no hope for seeing that thanks to my C pillar. I called it a crash, parents said I was exaggerating. It sounded and felt pretty crashy to me!

Footage of the "crash" is on this dashcam video, already matched up timestamp to right before it happened. I have built up PLENTY of dashcam footage, so I need to start making more of those episodes!

I don't know if the auto timestamp is working, skip to 28:48 if it starts at beginning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvM9...tu.be&t=28m48s

Other than that, I have quite a few close calls, some mine, some other peoples' fault. One notable one was when I was in the left of two turn lanes, along with a bunch of other people, I made the turn then the people in front of me started slowing down, so I looked over my shoulder to go to the right, when I looked back they were going a lot slower! I had to brake hard and ended up changing lanes, then I saw the whole cause of that situation. Someone in the left lane wanted to turn right into a gas station IMMEDIATELY after the intersection.

Also notable is ZERO tickets, ZERO times ran from cops, etc. I have been pulled over twice, but those were for hooning. Second one I full throttled a miata with an aftermarket exhaust(not all that loud, but loud enough apparently), shortly after passing a police induced gawk block. The person I passed at full throttle called the cops on me cause they got TRIGGERED. Cop caught up to me after a few miles, threatened to throw me in jail, etc. I was polite, didn't speak my mind, and got off without even a written warning.

On bikes, I have not had many close calls, dropped a VFR 800 once(rolled off kickstand) and couldn't pick it up by myself. Crashed dirt bikes way too many times to remember.

[MetroMPG]

I am very serious about driving safely, but I also corner hard and like to have fun.

Same! Although I've become more selective about when/where I will corner hard compared to when I was younger and stupider.

so far, only one "crash", I backed into a large metal door for a dumpster enclosure.

Doh! I'm surprised that buffed out by how loud/hard it sounded in the video.

Also: we taught drivers to back into parking spaces (unless you can drive through). It's generally safer to back in/drive out than drive in/back out. It's a habit of mine to this day.

[jcp123]

Originally Posted by Vman455

Lift-throttle oversteer's a *****, ain't it?

Or used to be. It's been fairly well dialed out of most FWD cars today.

It was in a Ford Focus. Lift-throttle and trail-braking at once! I was on an unfamiliar road and came to a corner too hot, there was an Integra coming the other way. I'd been driving maybe 6 months on my own, so I was pretty darn ignorant and panicked a bit on top of that. And this, ladies and gentleman, is how you oversteer a FWD automobile into a barbed wire fence.

I later found out that the Control Blade rear suspension was set up to be a little bit loose. Lift the throttle in a corner under more sane circumstances and it drifts out just enough to neutralize the understeer. Done properly it's actually an exceptionally entertaining FWD car to hustle around corners.

My Echo would snap oversteer on emergency lane changes. I avoided an accident, but I had to juke to the next lane because someone just didn't see me and was muscling in from the other side. The rear just gave up and it took a fancy steering wheel hustle that I'm rather proud of to tuck the car back in to the right heading. IIRC that's a torsion beam under there, and they have a reputation for snap oversteer in sudden maneuvers.

[MetroMPG]

I have read that the ST Focus and Fiesta are quite tail-happy.


Only tail-happy FWD car I've had the white-knuckle pleasure of rescuing from fishtailing (it was actually downhill oversteer - similar cause as lift oversteer) was one with rear tires that were a lot more worn out than the fronts.



Which is why most tire shops will install new tires on the rear of a FWD vehicle if you're only getting a pair of new ones.