Runaway car is driver's nightmare (From Stroud News and Journal)

Runaway car is driver's nightmare

A MAN was hospitalized after his own car ran him over and rampaged through Nailsworth streets before plunging into a lake.

The runaway BMW left a trail of destruction as it careered driverless through Newmarket in a freak accident on the evening of Tuesday, December 14.

After lurching away and hitting its owner the car rammed a parked Vauxhall Vectra through the fence of a newly-built house before careening down a field and into the pond.

Eyewitness Neil McAuley, 19, was just leaving the nearby George Inn with friends at around 7.30pm when he saw the car coming down the road.

"Suddenly there was this car scraping down along the side of the houses," he told the SNJ. "It hit this other car and we thought it was two people having an argument, like a road rage thing.

"They both came down here and smashed that fence to matchsticks. We came running round and saw the second car do a spin in the field. The BMW went into the water."

The owner of the BMW was found lying by his house further up the road. He was taken to hospital with what police described as "abrasion wounds" but escaped serious injury.

While the heavily damaged Vauxhall was towed off the field last Wednesday morning the BMW was still lying forlornly in its aquatic resting place as the SNJ went to press yesterday.

"It's engine was still running for 10 minutes in the water," said Mr McAuley. "It was a credit to German engineering."