The fact that nothing bad happened borders on a miracle: only after around 100 kilometers in the morning could a woman driving the wrong way on Autobahn 20 be stopped. The police tried several times to get the woman to stop. Only the last resort works.
The police in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania stopped a wrong-way driver on Autobahn 20 after driving around 100 kilometers towards Lübeck on the wrong side. As the police headquarters in Neubrandenburg announced, several emergency calls were received at 7.45 a.m. because of the wrong-way driver. She had driven her car near the city of Pasewalk onto the road to Stettin, but in the direction of Lübeck.
According to the police, seven patrol cars and a video car were immediately deployed. But despite the siren and the flashing blue light, stop signals and hand signals from the officers on sight, the woman did not stop. The 37-year-old from Poland also ignored a control point set up at the Altentreptow exit. According to the police, she was driving her car at more than 210 kilometers per hour. Traffic in the direction of Szczecin was diverted from the motorway at the Grimmen/West junction and onto a federal road.
Shortly before 8:30 a.m., after driving around 100 kilometers in the wrong lane, the car was finally stopped using a spiked belt. No one was injured during the operation. "Thanks to the immediate warning message via the traffic radio, the traffic-regulating measures taken by the officials and, above all, the prudent actions of the drivers who were traveling on the motorway in the direction of Szczecin, major damage could be prevented," writes the police.
Investigations are currently underway as to why the 37-year-old neither drove away at the next opportunity nor ignored all police stop signals. The examination of the ability to drive did not result in any indication of impairment. Criminal proceedings were initiated against the driver on suspicion of endangering road traffic.
