What's the strangest thing you've ever seen someone do while driving?

[Billy Kingsley]

I wish I had a picture, but in 1997 I saw a person playing the trumpet with one hand and steering the car with the other. I don't even know what kind of car it was, at this late date, but probably a Toyota Tercel based on my memory. It was a small vehicle but we had a 1990 Ford Aerostar at the time, so anything except 18-wheelers were smaller than we were. In this case, it really didn't matter what the car was, just the bizarre thing going on in the driver's seat. 

This was in Poughkeepsie, NY, by the way.

[huptoy]

I stopped at a stop light one morning and to my right was a younger women.  Eating a McDonalds sandwich, putting on eye makeup, talking on her cell phone, & turned the corner when the light turned green.  I went straight & haven’t seen her since.

 

she was in Kettering Ohio where talking on a cell phone while driving will get you a ticket. 

[Laughing Coyote]

A woman curling her hair while driving. 

A guy reading an actual book while driving down the freeway.

Edited November 13, 2019 by Laughing Coyote (see edit history)

[Guest]

Years ago. Morning bumper to bumper rush hour traffic in Seattle. Driving my hi-boy 4×4, I glance down into a car next to me and see a girl driving. One hand balancing a bowl of chicken noodle soup on top of the steering  wheel, the other hand slurping a spoon in and out of her mouth.

Now THAT'S multi-tasking.

I guess it was a good thing the car was an automatic.

[Brass is Best]

I once watched a guy eating a chicken dinner while weaving through rush hour traffic in Detroit. He had a Chicken breast, green beans, mashed potatoes with gravy. He seemed to be enjoying his meal at 85 mph plus.

[JRHaelig]

"Sunbathing"

[DB26]

At a red light. I looked to the car on my right and the young man was biting his steering wheel. Full on bite with teeth sunk in, lips around and all. He saw me noticed and immediately sat up and looked away. 

[PFitz]

Early 1970's, stuck in HOT, Summer rush hour traffic, going home on the Southern State Parkway on Long Island. I was sitting up high in the front passenger seat with my sister driving her husband's jacked up 57 Chevy. I looked over at the convertible stopped next to us. There's was a cute gal driving it and,...... just wearing a bra. 

 

Paul

[Guest]

41 minutes ago, DB26 said:

At a red light. I looked to the car on my right and the young man was biting his steering wheel. Full on bite with teeth sunk in, lips around and all. He saw me noticed and immediately sat up and looked away. 

OK, that one is just plain weird.🤣

What's in the trunk?

Large plastic garbage bags, duct tape and a shovel?

Edited November 12, 2019 by GregLaR (see edit history)

[GARY F]

The two I saw I cant put on here.

[46 woodie]

Wow, I thought seeing someone reading the newspaper while driving was strange. After reading some of these answers, I guess reading and driving is almost normal.

[Ronnie]

I had a friend who ran a paper route early in the morning hours. He would put a stack of newspapers in the passenger seat of his van and then roll the papers, put a rubber band around them, and throw them out the window while mostly driving with his knees.

[Spinneyhill]

Mr Bean.

 

Edited November 13, 2019 by Spinneyhill (see edit history)

[zepher]

3 hours ago, GARY F said:

The two I saw I cant put on here.

 

When I was in my early 20's I did highway construction and driving some semi truck type vehicles around the greater Los Angeles area I saw some rather interesting stuff that cannot be printed on a family friendly forum.

 

[Xander Wildeisen]

Do you mean from inside the car? Or from outside the car? Can not comment about stuff from inside the car.

[wayne sheldon]

How about on a motorcycle? Back in the '80s and '90s and beyond, I earned a living running service calls around much of Northern Califunny and taking care of various communication systems. I drove about 30,000 miles a year doing this.

In the San Jose and Santa Clara area, I saw this myself three times! Two times up close, one time he passed me on the freeway and I was doing about 70 mph at the time! Riding a motorcycle at high speed, STANDING ON HIS HEAD on the motorcycle seat!

Believe it, or not, this guy virtually terrorized the South Bay Area for about a year. One of the local television stations even got hold of a video showing him. I was glad for that, because I had seen him from a short distance in my rear view mirror a couple weeks before and wasn't sure I believed it myself. The video was captured from a distance and did not show him very well, but at least then I knew I wasn't crazy. I saw him another time from a short distance (this time ahead of me). It was a month or more later that he passed me.

Highway patrol and local PDs put out many calls for help identifying the man, but I never heard that he was identified or caught.

[Restorer32]

Was following a pick up truck at maybe 50 mph. Watched the man driving and his female passenger change seats without slowing down a bit.

[DavidAU]

2 months ago saw a guy in Texas driving a Silverado the wrong way around a roundabout with his arm out the window waving and pointing which way he wanted to go. I couldn't believe it. 

[Buick35]

When I was stationed at Ft. Sill Oklahoma in 71 I saw a 62 or 63 Chevy approaching a stop light and somebody through out a cinder block with a chain attached to it,I guess they were dropping the anchor to help slow them down! 

[JACK M]

Cant say the details but a buddy of mine told his lady "look up there honey".

They were stopped at a red light next to a school bus with a bunch of kids looking down.

[Trulyvintage]

Shaving - blade razor on a face covered in shave cream of a guy driving into the rising sun on a two lane rural Pennsylvania road at sunrise.

 

He had his head tilted back so he could watch how his neck

looked in his rear view mirror.

 

i will never forget that.

 

 

Jim

[plymouthcranbrook]

Motor cyclist coming toward me on a two lane road with a 55 mph limit.  Did not think too much of it until I realized he(she?) was holding a phone and looking down at it.  Noticed it about two car lengths ahead and watched in the mirror until I could not see any more .Never touched the bars.

[plymouthcranbrook]

13 hours ago, Buick35 said:

When I was stationed at Ft. Sill Oklahoma in 71 I saw a 62 or 63 Chevy approaching a stop light and somebody through out a cinder block with a chain attached to it,I guess they were dropping the anchor to help slow them down! 

I know a guy who had a 1957 Jeep Dispatcher in High School( and still has it). He or if with friends whenever he parked it would throw out a heavy metal bollard that was tied to the Jeep. Thought it was funny I guess. Called it “Dropping the Anchor “

Edited November 14, 2019 by plymouthcranbrook (see edit history)

[JACK M]

A couple of years ago a Portland city bus driver got busted for reading a book while driving. Might have been a newspaper, regardless, stupid.

[kgreen]

Driving south on I-75 during rush hour(s) in Atlanta and was slowed by heavy traffic attempting to pass a moving school bus, in front of which was no traffic  A couple of the high school aged girls were flashing their (OO) out the back windows.  

[TTR]

Strangest ? Someone driving a modern car or truck and appearing (acting ?) like it's enjoyable instead of boring experience. 😛

Edited November 14, 2019 by TTR (see edit history)

[Doug Novak]

John Candy taking the jacket off and getting both arms stock in the CARS TRAINS AND AIRPLANES movie. I know it wasn't real but I'm sure it's actually happened to some one. 

[padgett]

Apparently both feet were stuck also.

 

I find my modern cars every bit as enjoyable as my early ones. Of course I also like retractables and the Crossfire Coupe with 6 speed manual is faster than my XK Jags ever were. Keep in mind I have always liked 4 wheel disks and a DOHC 6 just like my '59.

[Studemax]

Saw a gal folding laundry at 65 MPH on a freeway.

[Malletor]

A couple of years ago, i have seen a person brushing his teeth while driving.

Edited November 18, 2019 by Malletor (see edit history)

[pont35cpe]

I was headed north out of Dallas on hwy 75, and coming thru McKinney, as passing an old Ford van I noticed a foot on the steering wheel and the driver was playing a guitar. Maybe his radio didn`t work..

[caddyshack]

Many years ago I also saw a young man dressed in fatigues driving with a bare foot on the steering wheel. Sitting high up in my Tahoe I could not see much else, so I started to report this to the highway patrol. At the stop light I could get a better view, and I could see It was a disabled veteran with severe disabilities. Luckily I did not report him. We owe these heroes so much. God bless them.

[marcapra]

A guy was speeding on the freeway as I merged in.  He swerved into the next lane and gave me the finger, so I smiled and waved back at him.  Then, he pulled up a shotgun and broke it open trying to load.  I swerved to the shoulder and let him go by!!!

[trimacar]

7 hours ago, marcapra said:

A guy was speeding on the freeway as I merged in.  He swerved into the next lane and gave me the finger, so I smiled and waved back at him.  Then, he pulled up a shotgun and broke it open trying to load.  I swerved to the shoulder and let him go by!!!

 

My brother lives in a Southern town that has areas and drivers a little rough around the edges.  He keeps a shotgun, sawed to the legal limit, right behind his driver's seat.

 

Recently he had a fellow get mad at him, didn't let him into traffic or such, the guy pulled in front of him at a stop light and started walking back to my brother's car.

 

My brother said he grabbed the shotgun, and just stick about a foot of barrel sideways out the window.

 

Fellow got back in his car pretty quickly!

 

I used to drive to Philadelphia quite often, my favorite was seeing a guy with a hardback novel, held in middle of steering wheel, reading it at 70 mph....

[bob staehle]

back in the early 80's I was working in Houston tx. my wife flew out from Clev. Oh. to spend a  long holiday weekend with me.

the day of the holiday we drove down to Galveston Bay, after spending the day there it was time to head back, that was

when the fun started, traffic on 45 was at a dead stop, down came the tail gates and out came the coolers. back then

it was legal to drink in your vehicle as long as you did't exceed the legal limit. biggest block, tail gate, party I have ever been to

[trimacar]

I'm not sure how legal it was to drink and drive, but many trips from Louisiana started with the conversation, two six pack trip, or three?  I remember one such trip, through Atlanta, big traffic jam and front sear passenger had to recycle some beer, found a cup...and just as we accelerated he threw it out front window, to dismay of back seat passenger, as we all had our windows open..

 

Hard to believe, but even on antique car tours in Louisiana in the 1960's, we'd have beer stops in the middle of the day.

[Billy Kingsley]

Some really great responses to this thread. Thank you everyone! 

[Olsarge]

I may get some backlash and I'm not sure this qualifies as strange but this is just something I couldn't do with my Corvette. On I-95 in South Florida. 

 

[WQ59B]

On 11/19/2019 at 8:19 AM, trimacar said:

I used to drive to Philadelphia quite often, my favorite was seeing a guy with a hardback novel, held in middle of steering wheel, reading it at 70 mph....

I remember seeing a guy with a book propped on his steering wheel on an interstate, doing in the  neighborhood of 70 MPH. There was a mug of coffee in one hand. Man! I thought, what a multi-tasker. Then the other hand appeared, rising upward, with an electric shaver in it, and he proceeded to also start shaving.

[Marty Roth]

16 hours ago, trimacar said:

I'm not sure how legal it was to drink and drive, but many trips from Louisiana started with the conversation, two six pack trip, or three?  I remember one such trip, through Atlanta, big traffic jam and front sear passenger had to recycle some beer, found a cup...and just as we accelerated he threw it out front window, to dismay of back seat passenger, as we all had our windows open..

 

Hard to believe, but even on antique car tours in Louisiana in the 1960's, we'd have beer stops in the middle of the day.

 

That actually continued up to the 2000s. 

And not only Louisiana !!

 

I recall a 2001 Tour, hosted by the Deep South Region in Mobile, Alabama.

The "Drink Wagon",  driven along the tour, and available at each stop, provided beer, along with coffee, soft drinks, and all manner of snacks.

 An out-of-town attendee vigorously, and loudly vocally objected to the refreshment wagon, He threatened to "Raise Hell" with headquarters, and that beer shouldn't even be available in the Hospitality Room of the headquarters hotel.

Then National President Doug Drake was a tour attendee, and had conducted activities under a stake-bodied Model T ford truck for youth who were on the tour, including our grandson and several other very interested kids. Thank you, Doug..