A 18-year-old girl from the northern town of Augustdorf in the district of Lippe, Germany narrowly escaped death when her Toyota Yaris car was crushed by a 68-tonnes of armored tank, belonging to the British military in the country.
Law enforcement agency in Germany failed to disclose the identity of the fortunate girl but only said she was learning to drive for the first time and it is unclear whether she had an instructor when the incident occurred.
The tank smashed into the front yard of the car. A bolt in one of the wheels broke off forcing the tank to lurch to the left and run off the road. The driver of the tank- a 24-year-old British national was unable to stop the machine, hitting the car and overrunning the front side. The engine and the front are completely destroyed. That tank is said to have come from the nearby military driving school at the Paderborn British Army Garrison in the area.
Military personnel pulled the girl alive and unhurt from the car after the incident. But her Toyota car was said to have suffered 12,000 euros (£8,600) worth of damage.
According to the local police in Lippe, the girl mistakenly pulled out in front of the column of British military vehicles travelling on the ring road. The girl might have not seen the tank or was probably stuck in moving the car to safety due to her no experience in driving.
The area where the incident occurred is said to often used by British forces stationed nearby to transport tanks and other armored vehicles to troops. Germany has lots of foreign military bases on its soil as a result of the country’s membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Organization for security and Co-operation in Europe.
“The street was built for heavy military vehicles near a large training facility. The street is known among locals as a shortcut”, local police spokesman-Lars Ridderbusch told nbcnews.com/ about the incident.
But some local residents also dispute this account given by the officer. They say the road is a public road and not a military road as he is telling the media.
Some local residents too after the incident questioned the competence of the driver of the tank given his young age.
But an unnamed British army spokesperson was also quoted by the bbc as saying “Our driving crews go through a very vigorous process before being allowed on the roads and both crews and vehicles are checked regularly. It is something we do take very, very seriously, especially with beasts of that size travelling on public roads.”
Earlier this year, a runaway British tank rolled into an elderly couple’s front lawn in Paderborn, an area not far from where this current incident happened.
Observers say it is common to see armored vehicles on public roads in Germany and it is time the country takes a second look at the situation before a disaster on a big scale happen. We hope somebody is listening to these concerns. Civilians must not be exposed to military hardware in that manner. It is dangerous. It can cause a masive disaster.
Sources:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/32973341/british-tank-crushes-learner-drivers-car-in-germany
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/young-drivers-car-crushed-british-tank-augustdorf-germany-n368211
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4 June ·
A young female driver in Germany failed to see a CHALLENGER 2 TANK rolling down the highway and turned into it.
I am from Germany:
She was 18 and was NOT learning! She has a drivers license and she said herself, that she can’t understand how she couldn’t see the tanks. its her fault.
Goes to show tanks don’t belong in a civilized society.