Riding shotgun with dozens of amateur drivers is far from the safest gig. Every now and then, a driving instructor loses their life in the line of duty. But these untimely deaths aren’t always because someone forgot to check their blind spot.

Take Iowa in 2022, when Randy Dierickx, a 66-year-old instructor, was tragically killed. A student vehicle was rear-ended and pushed into the path of an oncoming truck. In 2011, Leslie “Les” Green of Virginia met a similar fate. A Nissan crashed into the student-driven Hyundai Accent he was teaching in, flipping it during a driving skills exam.

Now, I’ve had my own strange run-ins with driving instructors. I learned from the oldest driver’s ed teacher in the country, Mr. Bert Snow. And yes, Bert was known to doze off during practice sessions. We’d swerve a bit to wake him up—no harm, no foul. Even after learning from an octogenarian, I can’t imagine your instructor just… dying mid-drive. But one Redditor claims that’s exactly what happened to his uncle.

ZifMaster started the conversation with a simple question: “Driving instructors of Reddit, what are your worst student driver experiences?”

You’d think most horror stories would involve missing a stop sign or merging without a signal. But one response stood out. RickTheDairyMan told the tale of his uncle’s first driving lesson, and it was no small thing. Mid-lesson, “his driving instructor died.” You read that right—the instructor passed away, right there in the passenger seat. First lesson, too!

Now, what do you even do in that situation? I’d like to think most of us would pull over and dial 911, but this was likely back in the days when cell phones weren’t as common. So, Rick’s uncle had to make a snap decision. With his now-deceased instructor slumped beside him, he drove—straight to the hospital.

I’ve gotta hand it to the kid. I’ve known plenty of student drivers who would struggle just to make it around the block, let alone drive through town under duress. Somehow, Rick’s uncle navigated his way to the hospital, where the staff could take over, examine the instructor, and issue a death certificate.

The town seemed to agree it was the best call he could’ve made, considering the situation. What else are you going to do when you’re already behind the wheel? Transporting a recently deceased person becomes a bit easier when you’re halfway there.

I have to wonder, though—did he pass the test? I’d like to imagine that after surviving such a traumatic first drive, they just handed him his license on the spot. I mean, what better proof of driving competence than delivering your expired instructor to a hospital without wrecking the car?