A wrong turn could have ended in tragedy, it has emerged, after a woman drove hundreds of yards along a railway track - only stopping when her car broke down in the face of an approaching train.
The 40-year-old driver, who is believed to have been drinking, ground to a halt on Newcastle's Metro line after taking a wrong turn onto the tracks at a level crossing between Wansbeck and Fawdon stations.
Luckily the approaching train was travelling slowly and the driver was able to stop "more than 50m from the vehicle", according to a spokesperson from Nexus, which provides public transport in Tyne and Wear.
She was arrested by police at the scene of the incident, according to local paper the Evening Chronicle, and is said to be helping with their inquiries.
The service was suspended for the rest of the evening and taxis were laid on to get passengers home.
It took workers three hours to retrieve her Mercedes from the tracks.
The Nexus spokesperson said services started the following morning after engineers had worked through the night to ensure safety.
A Northumbria Police spokesperson added: "It could have been potentially horrendous."
