It must be super nerve-racking being a driving instructor and relinquishing control to some kid. These stories prove it, but one glaring question emerges: why do they students keep hitting cows?
OnTheList-YouTube asked driving instructors of Reddit: What's the most insane thing you've seen a student do?
Submissions have been edited for clarity, context, and profanity.
10. 50 points.
Kid ran over a raccoon, stopped the car and threw it in the backseat. He continued to drive like nothing happened.
Lunch!
"What're you looking at me like that for? A meal's a meal."
9. Some people shouldn't drive.
My friend ran over a cow on a driving lesson
I went and asked her to remind me what actually happened. She lives in a very rural part of the UK, lots of single lane winding country roads. It was a calf, it had escaped from a field and it had already been struck so was in the road, unfortunately not dead so occasionally moving. She thought it was a black bin bag, tried to avoid it as best she could, ran over its head. Car was damaged but not totalled, cow was very badly damaged and died not quite immediately but very shortly after. She didnt have another driving lesson for over 6 months. On the day she finally passed her test, on her first solo trip out. She killed a cat.
8. Noticing a trend here...
I was the passenger when the incident happened. Our driving instructor forgot to mention she had issues with diabetes. She passed out when the worst of the three of us were driving. The kid driving panicked and immediately went off-road, through a fence, and into a field of cows. We hit a cow. The car was pretty much totaled. And since this was in the middle of nowhere we didn't have a cell signal so we had to find the owner of the cows to call 911.
Our instructor was put on "leave". The cow somehow walked it off and only had a few scrapes to show for her getting hit by a f*cking car. And we all got to redo our training a month later with a new instructor.
Man, driving students really do not like cows.
They are what we fear most.
Sounds like driving students have a beef with them or something...
7. Manual fail.
First time driving manual, they panic revved the engine to redline and dropped the clutch. The car launched then they slammed the brake without taking it out of first gear or pushing the clutch back in.
I've never driven automatic but how do you even do this?
They panicked. People do stupid things when they're not rationally thinking. That's what training is for, to overcome the natural response
For example, when you're driving a motorcycle, there is something called target fixation. Now a bike will naturally go where you look. So if you ID and visually fixate on a pothole or the guy who crossed the center line, guess where you're going to go? The one place you didn't want to go
It happens to all of us, even the pros. That's why you train to "unlearn" the natural response.
6. Grab the popcorn.
Not a driving instructor. Just live outside a house where the driving instructors love to teach their students to parallel park. It gets so bad, it's like coming out to watch a movie an how close they get before the driving instructor has to step in. Which is a lot. Mr. Fransis is great at stepping in at the last possible second. Makes it worth buying popcorn and drinks to watch this nervous kids almost crash Note: they can not see us. We live in a very shaded spot by large building. We sit in our screening porch. We dont try to make too much noise. We have no reason to make the kids more nervous.
5. *Smack*
Not a driving instructor but this guy I know drives a Crown Victoria (which is what most police cars are for those who don't know). The instructor, who was black, got in the car with him and the first thing the guy said to the instructor was "So is this your first time riding in the FRONT of one of these things." The instructor got out of the car and refused to test him.
"So is this your first time riding in the FRONT of one of these things."
That guy's an assh*le.
4. Now that's dedication.
I was in the back seat of a fellow student driver and the drivers ed teacher. We got t-boned by some dude who ran a red light and the drivers ed teacher, who's ex military, got out and ran after the guy who sped off. He ran a good quarter to half a mile before he came back and said he got the guys license plate and car model and called it in.
Bad. Ass.
3. When you're in the wrong line of work.
I'm going to do the reverse of this question, aka I was the student and the instructor was crazy.
Where I live, driving lessons are mandatory to get your license because there was a lot of fatal accidents involving new drivers in the early 2000's. Those lessons are provided by private driving schools and cost a fortune (over $1k).
It was one of my first driving lessons on the actual road. As I approached the intersection where I had a green light, I noticed a car speeding and about to pass on his red light. I slowed down to avoid a collision, and the instructor started yelling at me for slowing down, even after the car ran the red light. He would have crashed into us if I didn't slow down, no doubt about that. She gave me sh*t during the rest of the lesson, including very rude insults (calling me a dumb b!tch and such).
When we got back, she got into their office and started talking sh*t about me to everyone, how I'm a completely stupid useless sh*t, etc. I immediately requested to see the owner. She started telling him I was a reckless driver, that I shouldn't be on road, that I was lying to get out of trouble, etc.
She forgot that all their car have a front and rear dashcam with audio recording. They have them for insurance purpose.
I wanted to cancel my full course at this point and go to another school, owner apologized for what happened, refunded the full amount, personally became my instructor, and fired that woman on the spot. Don't know what the f*ck was her problem, and I certainly hope she never worked as a driving instructor anywhere else.
Someone's trying to learn how to drive ? Oh I know, calling them a dumb bitch will really help, yessir.
i had a teacher that wasnt flat out insulting me, but after a rough afternoon he topped it all off with a "are you even trying?" and I just broke down crying.
2. Wrong.
My instructor told me that he once had a student who put the handbrake on in the fast lane of a motorway when he told her to brake.
Sounds like all star if you sing it correctly.
She was looking kind of dumb with her car turned sideways in the shape of an L on the highway.
1. If you're wondering if this is a risky job, well...
Former instructor and manager of a driver's ed here. My husband was also a driver instructor there too. Usually the students were great bc it is optional in our state. Where I worked it is part university town but there are a lot of rural towns that we served too. The farm kids already knew how to drive. Some of them were better than me, lol. The story that sticks out in my mind is a driver's exam my husband did. The kid backs out of the spot and goes to turn out of the parking lot.
But he was so nervous, I guess, that he almost turned in front of an oncoming vehicle. My husband had to slam on his brake to avoid a collision on his side. If they had been hit my husband probably would have had some nasty injuries. Anyways, that was, of course, an automatic fail, so he had the kid go out onto the street and turn back into the parking lot at a different entrance. Kid almost started to turn in front of yet another vehicle. They get back and come in and tell the kid what he will have to do to eventually get his license and he leaves.
My husband fills me and then goes in to teach the class that was just starting. All of a sudden the dad comes in and starts tearing into me. My husband comes out and this guy tries to argue with us for like 30 mins until I had to threaten to call the cops. His poor son is sitting there head in his hands looking like he wanted to cry. I felt so bad for him. But that was crazy.
The bigger problem was the drivers around our students. The cars we used were obviously marked as drivers ed but other drivers would be rude and dangerous anyways. After I left the company (we moved) we found out that one of the vehicles had been hit during a lesson. So they were driving and some guy on his cell phone turned into them. The student did absolutely nothing wrong, in fact, he did everything right.
Well, the instructor, a good friend of ours, had just had a stint put in a few days earlier. The force of the crash knocked his chest into the side console and it ended up tearing the artery. He died a few hours later. So some ahole on his cellphone caused the death of this amazing guy. Although, if I had still been the manager there I would have not allowed him to go out on drives yet. But still. Love you, Paul!
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