15 Stories That Prove a Driving School Is a True Test of Human Endurance

Learning to drive is always a challenge, but sometimes it turns into a real comedy. Whether it’s stalling at traffic lights, or accidentally switching on the wipers instead of the side light, or mixing up the pedals, there’s a story for everyone. We put together a few funny stories for you that happened not just anywhere, but right behind the steering wheel!

• I finished a driving school, got a driver’s license, and then didn’t drive for many years. When I bought my own car, I took a few private lessons in the instructor’s car and another in my own. And at some point, I realized that I didn’t know how to fuel it at all.
  I drove to the petrol station and asked for help. The men giggled and didn’t help, but a woman — a petrol station employee — explained everything clearly and calmly. It was funny to me that none of the instructors really explained this, and I didn’t think to ask. © _kate.march
• At the exam, the instructor said, “Drop me off here, do a lap on the route and come back for me!” So, off I went. At the traffic lights, I had to turn left, but I was scared if someone would start honking.
  So, I ended up going straight. And then I started to panic, because somehow I had to go back to pick up the instructor. © windandfirez
• I learned to drive in an old car with no working wipers. The second and third gear got engaged only when they felt like it, and there was no learner’s sign at all. That’s when I truly understood what autopilot meant: you just hit the gas and go in first gear.
  The instructor handled the clutch himself, tried to jam it into the second gear, braked for potholes, and somehow managed to wipe snow off the windshield with a rag while leaning out the window. © mikhail977
• When graduating from driving school, my instructor gave me a card with the inscription “Watch out for trams.” It was a hint because once in the city I didn’t give way to a tram, and then he swore at me. I took more lessons than there were in the driving school course, but that instructor was obviously a saint, I still remember him with gratitude! © marinamarina5540

• I recently started learning to drive, and it turned out to be a stressful experience for me. Another intersection, the instructor tells me to turn round at the nearest allowed place. I don’t get it right. He hits the brake, “What’s the line here?!”
  “Straight...,” I mumbled. “It’s a solid line.” “But it’s still a straight line,” I stubbornly said. The instructor put his head down on the panel and grew silent, as if accepting his fate. © Overheard / Ideer
• In my driver’s ed car, we were on some back roads and had a girl go through 3 consecutive stop signs. My instructor, turned to her after the first one, and said, “Did you not see that stop sign?” She said she panicked.
  Then after the next 2, he had her pull over. Then he turned to her and says, “This has been the scariest day of my life.” She immediately started crying. © marti810 / Reddit
• When I was taking my driving lessons, I was rear ended right as we had left the DMV. The instructor got out to speak to the people who had hit me, it was a girl who just passed her driving test and was distracted looking at her license. © WazzaMatta92 / Reddit
• The driving instructor said to my wife after another driving lesson at the driving school, “Well, you know the rules, and you can drive the car quite decently. And if there was no one on the city roads, except for you, I would be completely sure you’d be fine.” © Unknown author / Pikabu

• A former driving teacher told us a story about a girl, first time driving, who flipped the car on its back during the road practice with another student in the car. The girl was driving, and another student was in the back seat. The car was on a low rise bridge, and she hit the guard rail and the car came crashing down and landed on its back.
  The first thing my driver instructor heard immediately after the crash was the kid in the back saying, “Well, I’m guessing I’m not driving today.” © PM_ME_YOUR_SNAPPLE / Reddit
• I was the student. So, I took driver’s ed at my school. This is common where I’m from, and it is a small school, 200 kids max. Now, due to reasons, I was late in driving with my teacher and getting my license.
  One day we were minding our business driving around town, and I was going too slow for his liking. He finally looks at me and goes, “Is your foot broken or what?” I had just gotten out of my cast a few weeks ago. Thanks to that, he just called me grandma with how slow I would drive. © BibbityBobbity***** / Reddit
• Once in winter, I was rolling out my first 2 lessons in a passenger car (I had learned to drive a lorry before that), and trouble came from where I wasn’t expecting it. At that time, winter shoes with thick multilayer sole were in fashion, and it played a cruel joke with me.
  I was driving along, enjoying the process, we were approaching a bridge, and right behind it there was a crossroads. I stop and suddenly realize that something is wrong. The instructor has duplicate pedals in the training car, as it is supposed to be, and here my sole gets stuck, and my toe goes under the whole system of wires.
  The instructor’s on edge, he’s shouting, “Go!” and I physically can’t. There are cars honking all around, the crossroads in front of me is already empty, and I’m standing there, helplessly twitching my leg. © andriim40
• I was in the car with the instructor and some other students. A girl was driving. At some point, she panicked... and covered her face with her hands. The car went off the road into a ditch.
  The instructor told her, “Drive us back!” She crossed her arms and said no. Then the guy in the back suddenly yelled, “Let me out, I don’t want to die today.” The instructor made her drive all the way back to school. © Hawthorne_northside / Reddit

• I live in Germany, where you take your test in your driving school’s car with your teacher beside you and the testing-guy in the backseat. I grew up in a town without many spots to parallel parking, so I was pretty confident that I wouldn’t have to do it during the test (not my strong point back then).
  That was until I turned into a street where 2 of my driving school’s trailers were parked with the perfect amount of space between them, while Mr-Test-Guy just exclaimed, “Oh my, what a coincidence!” and my teacher put his hands up, shouting, “I wonder who might have put them just here?!” Very funny, guys... © FrinnFrinn / Reddit
• My sister took me out for my first driving lesson. We used to have a road that was very up and down and curvy... It’s since been developed into a thriving community.
  However, on that fateful day, she took me right to the point of where it began, and had me take over. I carefully drove through the couple of miles of roller coaster like action at the recommended 35 miles per hour.
  After we finished, she had me pull over and said, “Now, this is how you drive this road.” Well... She got going a little too fast and at one point we literally left the ground. Mind you, I’m 15 at the time...
  Anyways, as we left the ground up ahead there’s a turn coming up, so I started screaming as the nose of the car begins to come down, and I hear a small scraping sound... She did slow down but damn... Crazy, crazy. I could have died that day. © FuzzyFireheart316 / Reddit
• I was driving to a nearby gas station with my dad, one of my first times driving. I drove perfectly the entire way there and my dad was super impressed. As I was parking, I put my foot on the brake to stop the car and pressed way too hard — except it wasn’t the brake, it was the gas!
  I almost crashed the car into the building, my dad had to do the emergency break to stop us. The car stopped 2 inches from the building. © Unknown author / Reddit

And here are car life hacks that can make driving more comfortable.