Topic: German drives down subway stairs

[sam]

had to be a woman....

A German woman in Dusseldorf blocked the entrance to an underground station when she mistook it for a subterranean car park, police said on Wednesday.

The 52-year-old drove her Volkswagen Beetle across the pavement and into the entrance, where it came to a halt five steps down.

Police estimated the damage to the station at around 1,500 euros (£1,000).

The VW Beetle-Cabrio remained balanced on the fifth step and the woman was able to get out unaided and unharmed.

The accident happened in the Nordstrasse underground station, in the centre of Dusseldorf.

A truck later towed the car out of the stairwell.

'Not dangerous'

A local newspaper said the woman was more shocked and embarrassed than hurt.

Map of Germany and Dusseldorf
A similar incident happened four years ago in the same underground station, when a 50-year-old man from Dortmund also mistook it for an underground car park.

Andrea Blome, head of Traffic Management in Dusseldorf said: "We had only recently transformed the entrance to the station".

She said the stairwell had been painted a brighter colour and extra lighting had been installed.

But she said no further changes were planned following the latest incident, and that the station was not considered dangerous.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6705323.stm

[Simon]

[Sandra]

had to be a woman....

A similar incident happened four years ago in the same underground station, when a 50-year-old man from Dortmund also mistook it for an underground car park.

50/50 I think Sam 

[sam]

damn it you noticed that line... hehe, how the hell do you mistake a subway station with underground parking, surely one would expect to  see signs.. and if there is parking nearby, maybe they should change their sign policy.. either that or they were following their tomtom

[GillE]

When I went on holiday in Germany, I wondered why so many signs on the autobahns pointed to 'Ausfahrt'.  I couldn't find it anywhere on the map.

Gill

[sam]

after doing a quick google I think I know what you mean by Ausfahrt... am I right in thinking all roads lead to Ausfahrt.

[Sandra]

They certainly do off the autobahn Sam.

Its from the verb Fahren = Drive, travel

Kraftwerk had a hit many years back with Autobahn which had the line Fahrt, fahrt, fahrt auf der autobahn in it as the main chorus.

I had a similar experience with my dad in Australia to you Gill.

He commented on how many places were called Fireplace as we drove along some roads as we kept coming across signs saying "Fireplace 200kms"   

[sam]

oh I see... probably before my time then... I know of another song called Autobahn by Anberlin but you have probably never heard of that band (though simon might have... if you haven't download them... )

[mistybear]

I had a similar experience with my dad in Australia to you Gill.

He commented on how many places were called Fireplace as we drove along some roads as we kept coming across signs saying "Fireplace 200kms"   

Haven't seen that in years, I think now they call them "Rest Stops", and they were also called picnic areas or something similar.
There is new campaign called "Rest, Revive and Survive" encouraging people to stop every two hours on long trips. They have roads side caravans supplying people who stop, with free coffee or tea.