Despite a terrifying accident, this driver kept their cool. Suspiciously so.
Some folks just have a more even-keeled temperament than others. When a Redditor asked the /r/Cars forum about everyone’s coolest car stories, one driver responded with a real humdinger. But the most surprising part of the tale might have been their reaction.
Here’s the gist of it: “Car broke down and caught fire on the way to work one day.”
That simple sentence is a bit misleading. Sure, older cars break down and coast to a stop. Maybe if their power steering and power brakes quit, getting them parked is a nail biter. But catch fire? That’s rare. Some electrical fires smoke for a while without burning. Gasoline doesn’t really burn, but explodes. So a true car fire is often the result of a long term oil leak coating the engine with so much residue it eventually lights up. Rare, but never good news.
What was this driver’s reaction? “I casually text my manager and team mate that my car is on fire so I was going to take a personal day.”
Casual indeed. That’s an absurdly calm way to handle a terrifying situation. And the manager agreed. Here’s what they texted back: “I feel like there should be an exclamation point there. Something like. My car is on fire!!!!! Is that true?”
Was the manager suspicious of the “excuse?” Or were they curious about the rest of the story? We’ll never know. But the car fire was apparently real. And the driver could prove it.
The driver reported they, “Sent them a pic of the car burning away.”
Yup, this wasn’t just a wire melting and creating a ton of smoke. This was a genuine car fire. And the story did probably deserve an explanation point. But the driver admitted they may have been too taken aback for the seriousness of the situation to register. “I think I was still in shock it caught fire.”
You can see the rest of the original Reddit post embedded below:
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