Silly Driving Stories

[bakedjake]

A coworker was relaying this story to me at lunch about a silly thing she did once:

She lived in Germany for about 4 years. Apparently, in Germany, they put their hazard lights on to indicate that they will be slowing down.

So when she moves back to Canada, she's driving in Kitchener one day and notices some people ahead of her with hazard lights on. She thought it was a bit weird, but chalked it up to the local German influence in Kitchener.

So she starts swerving in and out of this line of cars driving very slowly, trying to pass them, and wondering why they're all going slow. They're beeping at her, but she doesn't think she's doing anything wrong because she has her hazards on too when she's passing.

Finally, she gets to the front of the row of slow moving, hazard flashing cars, and notices a hearse.

It never occured to her that she was in the middle of a funeral procession.

[ThomasB]

ok, we use these hazard lights - agreed.

But we use them when approaching a traffic jam to indicate that it's going much slower. (210km/h to 40 km/h emergency brake is not unusual)

Jake, just come over and try it yourself. You will be happy to switch on any sign which will slow down the car behind you. ;)

[vkaryl]

Wouldn't have thought of a funeral procession myself. Here in the two states with which I'm most familiar (UT and NV), funeral processions travel with headlights on, not flashers. I wouldn't have been moving in and out of traffic though - flashers here are pretty universal for "you don't want to go there yet...." for various logical reasons.

[Essex_boy]

Not so much a silly story but.

Driving in Clacton one day and a camper van in front was doing about 15 miles an hour so I over took it, the passenger went mental screaming and shouting abuse out of window.

I pulled in to the petrol station and the idiot climbed out and continued the abuse, only this time he has an audience.

Any how I paid for my fuel and left, never having said a word to him, on the way out I passed the man who was by now speaking with the driver. I heard him say 'that told him'.

All rather strange

[le_gber]

bakedjake, ThomasB is right, we do the same in France and UK to warn cars behind us. What do you do where you live?

Leo

[Sanenet]

In Ireland they hit the hazards to say "Thanks for letting me overtake you". Course, I'm used to the hazards meaning - STOP NOW.

Scared the life out of me the first time when this idiot overtook me on a corner, doing at least 120kmph, and hits the hazards just as he vanishes around the corner - though he was about to hit something!

[katana_one]

Here in Florida, driving with your hazard lights on means

"I'm an idiot who can't drive in the rain!"

[olwen]

I think officially here (New Zealand) a left indicator (we drive on the left) should be used for slowing down. People sometimes use hazard lights if they have a problem with the car causing them to go slow. Funerals have traditionally had their headlights on. Thank you for letting me pass is a quick toot of the horn. Flashing headlights at opposing traffic means slow down, often because there is a traffic cop working the area or accident.

[krieves]

When I was in college I was driving in an unfamiliar large city and stopped for gas. While I was trying to pull out of the gas station into very busy traffic, the guy behind be kept honking his horn. After I little while I got tired of this (and I was frustrated with the amount of traffic) and gave him the finger. He got out of his car and knocked on my window. I barely cracked the window, so that he couldn't punch me.

He told me that he was honking because I left my gas cap on my trunk. Then he called me a jerk and walked off. I felt soooooo stupid.