HOT SAUCE
Hot food was used as the excuse for hot rod driving offences by one young driver in Canada. When pulled over for speeding, the teen driver explained that he had eaten highly spiced chicken, which made him desperate for the toilet. Officers were unimpressed as the young driver’s speed had been clocked at 170km/h. The youngster was fined heavily for the speeding offence and also for not having a supervising driver alongside.
HELI-CAR
A man in India grew bored with his rather mundane Tata saloon car, and to make it stand out in the parking lot he decided to turn it into a helicopter. The car now features a tail unit with an enclosed rotor, as well as rotorblades on the roof. Although incapable of flight, the car’s roof-mounted rotors do turn as it is driven. The tail rotor also rotates, although covers on either side ensure that no fingers can come into contact with it. The interior of the car has also been modified, featuring a special control panel.
BEARING WEIGHT?
A police officer in California recently had a somewhat unusual experience, resulting in the destruction of his police cruiser. The officer was driving along State Route 96 in the north of the state, when a bear fell onto the roof of the vehicle. It is unclear whether the bear jumped onto the car or simply fell from an embankment. Whatever the reason, the impact broke the car’s windscreen (windshield) as well as the bonnet (hood). The driver lost control and crashed the vehicle into an embankment, causing it to turn on its side and catch fire.
Luckily, the officer escaped serious injury, while the fire was contained rapidly. The bear ran away and was, hopefully, not hurt seriously.
CAR WASH
A teenager in India reacted poorly when he was given a brand new car for his 18th birthday as a present. The car was a brand new BMW 3 Series. However, the teenager was unhappy about the make of car as he had asked for a Jaguar instead. So in a fit of anger, he pushed the new BMW into a river. The car sank at first but then resurfaced and people nearby attempted to drag it to safety, thinking that there might be someone trapped inside.
The reaction of the parent’s to their spoilt teenager’s behaviour is unknown.
GOOD GUIDANCE
A UK driver became the butt of many jokes from his friends, simply for following the directions of his GPS. The man had planned to go camping with some friends and set his GPS to the location they had told him to meet. But the device directed him via a muddy track, where his car then became trapped some 5km from the main road. He had to wait for three hours before his friends were able to come and help. Recovering the car and making the necessary repairs added to the pain of his mistake.
POLICE STOP
Officers in New York state had an unusual experience when they were stopped, by a fake cop. The man had fitted a siren and warning lights to his car and pulled over the officers in their van, only to realise that they were genuine officers when they showed him their badges. The man then made a quick getaway in his Nissan, at one point driving head-on into oncoming traffic along a stretch of expressway, hitting speeds of nearly 140km/h. He was eventually stopped by highway patrol officers and charged with a series of driving offences, as well as impersonating a police officer.
WALK THIS WAY
A driver in the UK recently captured an alarming sight on his dashcam. As he drove along a very busy section of the A1 trunk road in the UK county of Northumberland, he spotted a couple walking along the centre of the carriageway, pushing a buggy with their infant child in front of them. The driver was appalled and contacted local police, who have tried to locate the couple and inform them of the danger that their action placed upon themselves, their child, and other road users.
CARRY THAT LOAD
When police carried out a traffic stop on a vehicle in Oklahoma, they made startling discoveries as to what was being transported. Officers pulled over the vehicle after spotting that its licence tags were out of date. After a quick search of the vehicle they arrested the occupants as one was driving with an expired licence while the other was a convicted criminal in possession of a firearm. A further search of the vehicle revealed a rattlesnake in the back seat as well as a quantity of uranium and an open bottle of whiskey. Although carrying the snake was not illegal, the creature was taken from the vehicle by an experienced handler and put down. The uranium cache, though unusual, also was not illegal and the driver explained that he had recently bought a geiger counter and was using the uranium to test the device. As the vehicle was not insured it was seized and was later found to have been stolen.
FIELD WORK
Police officers in the Scottish capital, Edinburgh, recently had to provide assistance to a truck driver in distress. The driver had rather foolishly followed the advice of his GPS system, despite it being quite clear the device was giving poor route advice. The driver had followed the device’s directions, even after it suggested he take a short cut along a dirt track running through a field close to the town of Dalkeith, situated to the south of Edinburgh. The truck quickly became mired in mud and the exasperated truck driver is likely to use a greater reliance on old-fashioned common sense in the future.
SWAN’S WAY
Traffic officers in London were called to deal with an unusual road hazard. A swan had flown onto a busy overpass and then decided to waddle along the roadway. A police motorcyclist arrived quickly at the scene and escorted the bird from the carriageway. It came to no harm and traffic was soon able to start moving again.
A QUESTION OF BALANCE
A driver in Wales was fined and given penalty points on his licence after being spotted driving his car with another vehicle balanced on the roof. The man had strapped a Skoda to the roof of his VW and then drove a short distance in an industrial estate. Although he claimed this was not unsafe as the distance travelled was short, he was driving very slowly and his friend was driving ahead in another vehicle, he accepted the charges and the fine and admitted it was not the cleverest course of action to take.
