It must have been like a scene from a James Bond movie.
An elderly lady who drove onto the wrong highway performed an impressive
U-turn and sped off into oncoming traffic. She got home safely after
causing nine accidents, €50,000 of damage and losing her licence.
A 76-year-old German woman who discovered she had driven onto the wrong
stretch of motorway turned her car around and headed into oncoming
high-speed traffic, causing nine accidents as dozens of cars were forced
into hair-raising swerves to avoid her.
The lady had been trying to drive into the center of the Bavarian city
of Bayreuth -- famous for its annual Wagner opera festival -- on Friday
evening, but joined the A9 Autobahn by mistake and found that she was
heading towards Berlin. After three kilometers she decided to perform a
U-turn on the spot, causing two cars to collide behind her, and
proceeded to drive back in the left-hand lane and the hard shoulder of
the motorway, Bavarian police said in a statement.
"Her driving caused a number of dangerous evasion manoeuvres by oncoming
vehicles," police said. She finally stopped at a motorway construction
site when the traffic became too heavy, causing six further accidents.
No one was seriously hurt but the motorway had to be closed for 45
minutes and the lady had her driving license confiscated at the request
of the Bayreuth public prosecutors' office. Police estimated she caused
€50,000 worth of damage.
While statistics provide no clear indication that elderly people are
particularly dangerous, frequent reports of accidents caused by
pensioners have led to calls for tougher medical controls on them and
even driving bans. Elderly people insist they have a right to drive if
they are fit and point to the high accident rate among young drivers. As
populations age across Europe, the debate is unlikely to go away.
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