These Are The Wildest Things You Have Witnessed While Driving

Earlier this week we asked you to share the wildest things you’ve witnessed while driving, and you all did not disappoint. In fact, there were so many unbelievable stories that I had a hard time picking the ones to highlight in this blog. If you’d like to read the other comments, and I recommend you do, head back and read through them. Y’all have seen some gnarly stuff. 

I said the wildest thing I saw while driving was when a woman’s Hyundai Accent spontaneously combusted on the freeway beside me. Everything was normal and in an instant a fireball erupted from beneath the hood of her car, and she quickly pulled over and got out of her burning car. I pulled over to make sure she was alright, and watched her walk back to her burning car and casually grab her purse off the passenger seat. She told me she was fine, and explained that flames suddenly started shooting out of her air vents before the fireball occurred. I was in disbelief as a bystander, so I cannot imagine how rattled she must’ve been. Enough about me, though. This is about you, the doting Jalopnik audience. These are some of my favorite anecdotes of the wildest things you’ve seen while driving. 

A few years ago we had to drive into Calgary in the middle of a brutal snowstorm. Normally we would have gone another day but we absolutely had to be there that day. Just north of Calgary on the three-lane QE2 highway the road turned into a sheet of ice. Five cars lost control and went into each other, blocking the highway. We stopped safely as we were already crawling along. For the next 15 minutes we watched a 30+ car accident happen all around us. We had semis in the ditch on both sides of us. Two cars that missed us hit the wreck in front of us. Cars were smashing into each other behind us. We didn’t get so much as brushed by another car. After a bit, a cop walked up to the truck and asked us if we were ok. He pointed to an opening that led to an open bit of shoulder and said “Just get out of here”. We left behind a 30+ car wreck without a scratch on our vehicle. Weird.

Submitted by: JohnnyWasASchoolBoy

Atlanta, GA. My wife and I were headed to the airport in our minivan. Traffic, as usual, was 80+mph and bumper to bumper.

In the lane to my left was a big Dodge dually pulling a double axel utility trailer. On the other side of him was a square body S-10 Blazer.

Blazer wanted in behind Dodge, but didn’t notice the trailer. So when he tried to move over and saw it, he whipped back into the lane he’d come from. He turned so sharply, he ended up on two wheels, driver side down.

When I say he was on two wheels, I don’t mean they came off the ground a few inches. I mean I could see the driveshaft spinning. And he held it long enough for me to turn to my wife, tap her arm, point and say “Look at that!”

She turned and saw it, the guy dropped it back on its wheels, and just kept going like nothing happened.

I was like “Are we on camera?”

Atlanta is Thunderdome.

Submitted by: Stillnotatony

I was sitting a a red light with cross traffic turning into our lanes on a left arrow. This is a semi rural divided highway with the occasional cross light. A truck came up from behind us and swerved around and into the intersection at 60-70mph hitting an Acura integra making a turn.

Both cars totaled. The truck driver destroyed the whole front of his car but wandered up tot the woman pinned in the Acura to say sorry, then walked back and tried to drive away. Hammered drunk. The other driver was panicked and hurt, when I noticed a few things in the car that looked off. A bag was in the back caught on the hatch frame, and several toys where in the car. She had a toddler in the rear of the car in the crash. No toddler, no hatch glass, no car seat, nothing there now. I walked down to the ditch by the road and found a little girl strapped in the car seat 75 feet or so from where the crash happened. She was in the tall grass in shock. with a little scratch on her face. She was scared but alert.

Fire and police arrived, they got the woman out, the man arrested, and the little girl in a flight to the children’s hospital. Man went to jail. woman was injured but recovered. Little girl was fine but for that little scratch.

When the cars hit, her seat and all was thrown out the hatch and into the ditch. She was buckled in the car seat, but the seat was not properly buckled into the car. I had to testify in court twice. I was amazed at the distance that little girl flew.

Submitted by: bb1313

The craziest thing I saw, the other day in fact, was a guy come to a stop at a red light. He didn’t start playing on his phone and he didn’t start digging for treasure in the seat next to him or behind him and when the light turned green, he started driving again. Such a rare thing to witness.

Submitted by: Dan Hartman (ABurntTurkey)

Driving down the Fla Turnpike one afternoon when I see a first gen Nissan Maxima with an engine compartment fire. Guy is doing 65mph with his head hanging out the drivers window acting like no big deal. Several other drivers (myself included) tried for a couple of miles to get this guy to pull over but he just kept going until the engine stopped running. Car burned to a crisp before the fire truck showed up. Driver was okay. He was Florida man.

Submitted by: IB007

US1 near I40 between Raleigh and Cary. Some lifted pickup not paying any attention nearly merges into a Chevy Cruze. Cruze makes an emergency maneuver to avoid getting hit. Cary PD promptly pulls over…..

…. Not the truck, but the Cruze. The person paying attention, the person doing the right thing to avoid an accident.

I’m sure I’ve seen more shocking things, but of all the takes, that one was the most wild I’ve seen.

Submitted by: JustACarGuy

Merging in to highway traffic just outside NYC as a kid, my dad merged just fine but the lady behind him was so upset she drove along the passengers side, opened her door and started trying to kick my dads station wagon door – where I was sitting, all at about 55 MPH. This would begin a life long hatred for city traffic that borders on an aversion.

Submitted by: Snaab

I still remember this to this day, circa 2001-2002(?), dirt road in the foothills of NC going to the local rivers/streams/swimming hole during peak summer season so it’s super busy. Picture a narrow dirt road with two-way bumper to bumper traffic. The access road is cut halfway up the mountain so the hillside is on one side, and the other side slowly drops off 50-100ft down a 60+degree slope into the stream/river. Incoming traffic had the hillside to their right, outgoing traffic had the drop-off to their right. We were in front of an oncoming car who hugged the edge of the road too closely and had their rear passenger tire slip off from the road, causing their entire vehicle to roll over and careen down into the riverbed. You can see and hear trees breaking as they rolled and the sound from splashing into the riverbed was loud. A lot of people stopped to assess/observe/help/etc but everyone knew we also needed to keep moving to make way for EMS. We’re in the mountains so it’s very remote and it took a couple hours to get some help.

Submitted by: JMonie123

I saw a guy whose brain apparently could not comprehend a roundabout. He wanted to go left, but when he saw that the signs and curbs were making him go right, he turned left over the curbs and went against traffic in the roundabout. You could hear the banging and scraping as his low sedan suffered through the little impromptu obstacle course.

I want to add that it was a small roundabout. You could clearly see the entire thing. He saved no time by jumping the curb.

Submitted by: 6thtimearound

I watched an old Mexican grandpa standing up in the bed of a pickup going down the road about 30mph. He was twirling a lasso over his head, he threw it, and he caught a running ostrich.

Submitted by: Rollerrobb

Well, this was my parents, but they were driving home from the big city of Raleigh, NC. They were behind a pickup truck carrying a large hog in the back. Truck hit a big bump, hog bounced up and out of the truck. Started doing spins on the road. They didn’t hang around to find out what happened to the poor hog (who was likely going to meet his maker regardless.)

My person one was I was driving down the road, a car pulled out of BK in front of me, making the left turn out of the restaurant. Passenger door flew open, and a small child came tumbling out of the car. She rolled on the pavement, hopped up like she did this every day, ran back into the car, got in and mom sped off. Luckily everyone slammed on their brakes and stopped in time.

Submitted by: Jumbojeepman