GERMANY — A teenage girl in Germany is lucky to be alive after her car was crushed by a tank.
The woman, 18, took a turn down a road where British tanks were travelling through the small town of Augustdorf.
The operator of the tank said he couldn’t stop quick enough to miss the car but turned to avoid hitting the drive.
The woman, who has not been named under German privacy laws, escaped unharmed.
Her Toyota, on the other hand, was crushed by the 62-tonne Challenger tank.
Police cleared the 24-year-old British soldier driving the tank of any blame.
“The soldier had no chance to slow down,” a spokesman told reporters.
The area where the accident took place is well known for tank convoys passing through.
British army bases at Herford and Paderborn are nearby, and it is used as a military training area by the German army and its Nato allies.
The name of the road could have provided the young driver with a clue: Panzerringstrasse translates as “Tank Ring Road”.
