17 year old + Driving license = Mayhem
I had just passed my driving test, and my parents bought me a Ford Escort.

Being young and full of male bravado, of course, I drove it around like a bat out of hell (well, about as quickly as you can drive a 1.3 Ford Escort anyway).

One day, I was driving down a hill on my way to work. Windows down, 600bpm speedcore on the stereo, feeling cool as anything. I must have been doing, ooh, about 50 miles an hour. In a 30 limit. Over a blind crest. On a very wet, slippery road.

Just as I went over the hill, I realised 'Oh shit - there's another car there!'.

Now, part of having passed your driving test first time after not very many lessons also means that you think you know everything about controlling a car.

Which means that I somehow thought that slamming the brakes on (no ABS on this car, by the way) and attempting to steer
round the oncoming Citroen AX was a good idea.

My Escort buried itself in the front of the previously mentioned French Tin Can. And as far as I know, that's the last time it ever moved.

It's only when looking back at it now that I realise how stupid I was, and how close I came to hurting or killing someone (what if the car I hit wasn't a car, but a bike?)

Somehow, despite getting the bollocking of my life from the police, I managed to keep my driving license. Which remains clean to this day.

I now drive far more slowly.

Length? The skidmarks were a couple of meters long. Both on the road, and elsewhere.
(Half of Stephen Fry's right buttock pissed on your dog on, Thu 20 Dec 2007, 17:20, Reply)