10 Terrifying Passenger Stories, As Told By You

1. I gave that ditch a car, ditches love cars - Knightophonix

A friend of mine during a camping trip in the wild: “Hey dude, this huge field is perfect for having fun with our cars! Come along, I’ll drive and show you!” 30 seconds later: “Dude. I swear. This ditch wasn’t there last time.”

2. Maniac! - Ben Anderson

I was in the passenger seat of a friend’s Peugeot 206. He was a mad as hell driver and used his throttle pedal as an on/off switch. The car may have only had a 1.4-litre engine, but it felt like a rocket ship because of how aggressive he was.

So we were coming up to a roundabout. We all know how roundabouts work, ie., you go in a circle. But no, of course he doesn’t do that. He makes a sharp turn thinking we’re going to miss our turn, and I really do mean sharp turn - my head hit the passenger window.

He ends up turning into the other lane and enters the roundabout backwards! What should’ve been the fourth exit (on a five exit roundabout) he ends up taking like it was a T-Junction, almost hitting two cars in the process.

Needless to say, I pooped myself, a lot. Once we were out of danger I made sure to use every swear word in my vocabulary at least three times over with how hard I verbally abused the hell out of him. I’ve never been in his car since.

3. You actually going to stop for that red light? - Felix van Holthe

A friend of mine got a VW Golf GTI (2007) as his first car recently. The first day he had it I got in and let’s just say he drove very ‘excited’… Eventually it started to rain heavily, and this resulted in him going at least 60mph towards a traffic light. Of course it had to turn red as we approached and when the car finally stopped, we were in the middle of the intersection. And here comes the best part: two hours later he walked towards the boot/trunk to get the glasses he’d forgotten to put on!

4. More red light madness - Artjom Guk

Scariest things are always happening when I’m with one of my friends. One time we were going up the street and there is huge, busy intersection ahead. The light is going yellow and ultimately red and my friend is going steadily onwards.
The closer we get, the more nervous I am getting. A couple dozen meters before the intersection I just screamed to my friend so that he stop. He steps on the brake pedal and we stop inches from the crossing road. With heart beating fast I turn to him and ask why the hell he wasn’t stopping. His answer was calm and careless - “Sorry, bro, I didn’t notice the light. When did it become red?”

5. Bro, do you even tank? - Carl Peterson

I served in the US Army, enlisted as a cannon crew member on 155mm self propelled howitzers. Think tank, but taller and a bigger main gun. They steer by applying power and braking force to each track independently, including reverse. We were learning how to drive these monsters on a gravel oval and one guy in my gun didn’t get it.
Coming up on the corner he forgets to brake and turns too hard, sending the inside track into reverse. There are no seats or restraints for the people inside the gun, so I go flying across the firing compartment as this idiot sends our 25 ton deathtrap skidding sideways at 40mph… Thank god for old MREs [field rations], if I had been capable of pooping I surely would have!

6. Can't handle the power

Scariest moment was when my buddy bought a brand new M3 at the age of 21. Safe to say the bloke had never driven a fast car before let alone a rear-wheel drive one with a few hundred horses. Long story short we went out on country roads taking race lines, making one lane into two etc etc and ended up rolling six times. Had a bad back ever since.

7. Video evidence - German Fomin

Me and my friend were driving to a rally two states away from where we lived at (about a seven hour trip). When we were about half way there, my friend lost control and we wiped out at approximately 60mph. When I looked to the right, I saw a semi-truck coming straight at my face. To make things worse, the car stalled and wouldn’t start over. When we jumped out of the car, we realized that the front end of the car was about half a foot away from the lane the semi-truck was driving. This is the video of the crash.

8. Nasty wake up call - Gibbles

A few years ago, I decided to ride along with my cousin to a family member’s wedding. It was a six-hour drive so, for the sake of comfort, he wanted to take his Mercedes-Benz S500. I didn’t have to drive or help pay for fuel for the thirsty V8 so I had no objection to his idea.
After a successful wedding ceremony, we jumped in the big four door and headed back south. While rain is considered good luck for the couple on their wedding day, it wasn’t so much for us. The S500 hydroplaned and spun out while we were on the highway. I was actually sleeping when I felt an arm across my chest and my cousing screaming “HOLD ON!”
All I saw were headlights from the cars behind us as I opened my eyes. We bounced off a guardrail and made a full 360. We pulled over and surprisingly, the damage wasn’t too bad. The bumper was cracked and the headlights were scratched up, but we were able to drive home safely…. at a lower speed.

9. All the gear, no idea - Dinkelburg

I have an uncle who thinks he is the greatest driver in the universe. Every time I get in a car with him, I buckle up and nearly choke myself with the belt because of how tight I make it.
Super late braking? Check. Constantly distracted? Double check. Always trying to impress his passengers by going so fast that he isn’t able to control the car? There aren’t enough checks in the world. Yet, he always has the nicest cars.
Last week, we went over to his house, and he had just leased a W222 S63 AMG. Before that, he had a 2012 Grand Cherokee SRT8. But as far as I can tell, he hasn’t learned how to drive them at all.

10. Autobahn tennis - Remo

When I was still young (some odd 10 years ago), my dad decided to take me on the first ‘real’ Autobahn drive. At the time he drove an R230 Mercedes SL 55 AMG - delimited. We were on two lane autobahn that was completely empty (it was quite early in morning), so he went for it.
At some point we were hitting around 310kmh when a little Ford Ka (in bright yellow, looking like a lost tennis ball) merged onto the autobahn. This would have been fine, had it chosen to stay in the right lane (where there were no cars at all). Instead, he pulls over to the left lane, at the point where we were about 150m behind him. My dad slammed the brakes and the tires contributed their obligatory smoke. Even though my dad flashed his lights and sounded his horn like a maniac, the Ka didn’t seem to be disturbed by that.
Thank god my dad managed to swerve last second (doing a good 240, which was scary enough) to dodge the little tennis ball. Hands down, one of the scariest situations I have been in.

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