1

I went forward instead of in reverse when the tester was standing in front of me on the curb. I failed.

2

My driver’s ed teacher said that one kid reclined his seat all the way back, put one foot on the gas and the other on the brake, and grabbed the top of the wheel with one hand and said “Let’s go.”

3

Opposite kind of story here. When I was taking drivers ed I was in a car that had the brake on the passenger side for the instructor to use just in case. Going 35 down fairly busy street my car all of a sudden comes to a complete stop.

In horror I look over at my instructor who is sound asleep with his foot on the brake. I just sat there dumbfounded. After a couple people honked real quick he shook himself awake, mumbled a quick, “accelerate” and sat up adjusting his glasses. So that was fun.

4

I’m not a tester, but I asked my tester during my full license test what was the worst thing someone had done.

Apparently there was an older gentleman who drove through 3 stop signs before the tester told him to pull over. The gentleman explained that he didn’t want the license but his family was pressuring him, so ran the signs on purpose to fail (made sure no cars were coming first).

5

…there was a license center next to the sporting goods store I worked at. A LOT of people would come there and practice before their test out front in the straight on parking spots. A young lady (who only had her permit) managed to mix up the gas and brake and drove right through the front of the license center.

I was told later that she was even more upset when they wouldn’t let her reschedule her test for the following day since they cancelled her test she was pulling in to take when she wrecked the whole front of the building.

It wasn’t long after that they installed a bunch of bollards in front to protect the building. I was amazed at how marked up they had gotten in the first few months.

6

My grandfather used to be a tester. He had one girl forget which way to turn the steering wheel, and they ended up in a ditch.

7

In my local area a guy in his mid twenties failed the test for some reason. At this point in time the results of the test were shared in the car. After being told he failed, he proceeded to get out of the car and grab an axe out of the trunk.

I don’t know any more details beyond that but apparently it is why the results are shared inside the licensing building rather than in the car.

8

My Dad did testing for a few years and he once had a girl stop on railroad tracks. There was a train coming (slowly, but still it takes them a long time to stop) and it blasted the horn right into the car (passenger side, with the window open). This just made her freeze up even more. He had to reach his foot over to her side to hit the accelerator.

9

Wasn’t a kid, my 80 year old great aunt. The tester kept telling her to speed up. After a few times she said she can’t see the speedometer so she doesn’t know fast she is going.

He made her pull over and she did not receive a renewal, thank god.

10

My dad was friends with a guy who worked for the registry giving the road test. His best story was of a kid who took his test while it was raining. He started driving without the windshield wipers on.

The guy figured he was nervous so tried to give him a break saying, “It’s raining pretty hard, huh.” The kid was white knuckled on the steering wheel and just said, “Yeah.” Again trying to give the kid a break he said, “Don’t you think you should do something about that?” The kid said, “Yeah.”

Apparently he didn’t know where the wiper controls were so he rolled down the driver’s side window and stuck his head out. At that point he stopped the test and failed him.

11

When I parallel parked I hit the pole behind me, and the tester said “It’s fine. This should be an automatic fail but I think that’s a bit too harsh”. Then I hit the pole in front of me head on. Did not pass

12

My father used to tell stories of when his dad worked at the Massachusetts Registry.

One story (and I’ll change names because internet) he told was there was this kid taking a test who was awful, but the kid was really stuck up. Somehow he had gotten my grandfather’s name, so after the kid tries to act all slick and pull strings and goes, “I know Chuck Lafitte!” My grandfather giving the test says, “oh really? You know Chuck Lafitte?” Kid’s like, “yep.” “No you don’t. Because I’m Chuck Lafitte.”

Kid did not get a license that day.

13

While I was waiting for my turn to do my CDL test I watched a guy in a semi back into a light pole and instead of seeing what he gently backed into gassed it and knocked it over. Needless to say I didn’t get to take my test for an hour or so while they cleaned it up.

14

As someone who worked in a DMV for many years issuing driver’s licenses — even though I wasn’t a license examiner — I think I’m the closest thing to your target respondent so far.

The craziest thing I ever witnessed with my own eyes was a dude who somehow managed to lose control at <15 mph, jumped the curb, and smashed into the guardrail. Needless to say, he was not issued a license.

The best story I ever heard from a co-worker happened immediately after she came inside swearing a blue streak because, during a part of the test where the examiner stands on the curb in order to observe maneuvers, her customer drove up over the curb and straight into her knee.