A 39-year-old drunk woman took a wrong turn in Ludwigshafen. She came across tram tracks and followed them into a tram tunnel under the Rathaus-Center.
The woman drove along the tracks – until just before the “Rathaus-Center” stop.
Rhein-Neckar-Verkehr GmbH
As a police spokesman told SWR, the woman turned left onto the tram bed on Friday before Christmas Eve shortly after 9 p.m. on Bahnhofsstrasse in Ludwigshafen. The tram tracks run parallel to the street she probably intended to turn onto. There the track bed is overgrown with grass.
Apparently, the woman didn’t notice the tracks
Apparently, she didn’t even notice her mistake, but continued straight ahead, across an intersection into the tunnel that led down to the “Rathaus-Center” stop. Tram lines 6, 7 and 8 stop there. A normal gravel bed begins behind the crossing. But the 39-year-old didn’t seem to notice her mistake there either. It wasn’t until just before the bus stop that she couldn’t get any further. According to the police, a subsequent breath alcohol test showed the woman to be 1.32 per mille.
Large rescue action from the tram tunnel
According to a spokesman for Rhein-Neckar-Verkehr-GmbH (RNV), getting the car out of the tunnel involved a great deal of effort. A special lorry for rail work was therefore driven into the tunnel. The tires of the small Fiat were removed and the vehicle was then lifted onto the lorry. A tram then pulled the lorry piggyback out with the car.
Recovering the car was very difficult.
rnvGmbH
15,000 euros damage
The tram route was closed. The operation lasted until four o’clock in the morning. From the evening there are only a few trains on the road anyway. Train drivers could also have switched to other lines.
The salvage was completed just in time for the start of operations on Christmas Eve. The rails and the track bed were not damaged, at least not in such a way that the route would be impassable, according to the RNV spokesman. The police estimate the damage at 15,000 euros.
