• Home
• Fun Stuff
• Humor

Strange But True

Despite an endless media barrage on the need to drive safely, car accidents and car violations still occur. Most are of the garden-variety type caused by honest error. But some accidents and violations are so king-dumb they make you wonder if perhaps mankind is inflicted with an overactive idiot gene.

And it’s not just hormone-mystified teenagers, or business types who confuse driver seats for conference call desk chairs, or booze hounds who are the culprits. Weirdness has no bias when it comes to car accidents and violations. They happen to every age group, every profession, every class.

As proof, we’ve documented some of the most recent bizarre driving stories to make the newswires and, in some instances, appear on late-night talk shows.

Ford to Consider Equipping Cars with Red Capes

(April 2007)

An 81-year old woman in Hebron, New York experienced a home-version of The Running of the Bulls from the front seat of her Ford Escort.

According to police reports, the incident began when she drove into her garage and found a wayward bull staring her down. She tried scaring it off by honking her horn, but it only enraged the beast. The bull proceeded to ram the woman’s car and chase the vehicle down the street as it sped away.

Police ticketed the bull’s owner for allowing it to escape from a nearby pasture. The bull, meanwhile, was eventually captured after getting bogged in a swamp.

---

A Passenger-Side Grill

(April 2007)

A German lorry driver (truck driver) accidentally ignited his cab while driving and cooking.

According to authorities, the driver was cooking two sausages on a small gas stove positioned next to him on the passenger seat. While zipping through Niederwüerschnitz, Germany, the grill toppled. The seat quickly ignited, spreading flames throughout the cab.

The driver was treated at a local hospital for smoke inhalation. Upon release, the police charged him with driving while three times over the legal alcohol limit.

---

Think Twice if You See This Lady Hitchhiking

(May 2007)

For the second time in less than two years, Stephanie Green of Raleigh, North Carolina gave birth in a car. This has nothing to do with North Carolina’s NASCAR culture, but instead just bad timing.

Baby Zaria was born healthy and kicking, just blocks from the hospital. Her older sister, Semajai, was born in a car 17 months earlier while her mother was stopped in traffic.

There’s no word if any of the Pep Boys have been asked to serve as godparents.

---

Keep Your Car Doors Locked

(May 2007)

A gang of armed thugs carjacked Kobus Van Deventer’s vehicle while he was driving through the northern suburbs of Johannesburg, South Africa. He was then forced, at gunpoint, to drive to his home. The thugs proceeded to ransack Van Deventer’s house and gulp a bottle of Chivas Regal, but not before forcing him to strip and super-gluing him to the seat of an exercise bike.

---

High in Calories and DNA

(April 2007)

Norman O. Wheeler learned a hard lesson in car theft: don’t leave behind half-eaten cinnamon buns.

Wheeler, of Detroit, Michigan, left a partly eaten cinnamon bun in the front seat of a car he stole. The investigating officer found the partly eaten pastry and sent it to the Michigan State Police crime lab for DNA testing. The DNA on the bun matched with Wheeler’s, whose DNA was on file for a past conviction, leading to his arrest.

---

Next Time Take the Elevator

(May 2007)

A German women got her vehicle stuck on a stairwell after mistaking a subway entrance for a parking garage.

The 52-year old driver from Düsseldorf veered her Volkswagen Beetle into the subway entrance before stuttering to a halt five steps down. There were no injuries, only embarrassment. The car sustained more than $2,000 in damages.