German police are investigating the cause of an accident which left a car suspended nearly 25 feet off the ground, halfway through the roof of a church. How somebody managed to put a station wagon into the church rafters is still undetermined.
The accident took place in Limbach-Oberfrohna, just outside of Chemnitz, Germany. Police believe the 23-year-old driver was racing through the center of town when he lost control of his Skoda Octavia, careened off an embankment, and wound up wedged in the church seven meters up.
One police officer told reporters at the scene, "the driver took off due to unexplained circumstances, flew some 30 meters through the air and ended up seven meters up in the church roof."
Investigators believe the car's speed led to the driver missing a turn. Just how the vehicle went airborne is still a bit of a mystery. "I've never seen anything like it," continued Officer Knut Wagner.
The driver of the Skoda Octavia was extracted from the vehicle, and transported to the hospital with serious injuries. Damage to the vehicle has been estimated at €10,000. Meanwhile, the town's church was badly damaged from the accident, but the cost of the damage has yet to be assessed. Investigators have requested the assistance of physicists in the accident reconstruction.
At its most powerful, a stock Skoda Octavia can get up to 197 hp and 207 ft-lb of torque from a 2.0-liter four-cylinder 16-valve TFSI vRS engine. With that engine, and no other tuning, it has a top speed of 150mph, and a 0-60mph time of about seven seconds.
In a statement released earlier today, Chemnitz police said that the officers “must have thought they were looking at a movie.” Remarking on reports that claim the car missed a bend, crashed through a railing, and plowed into an embankment, they said, “The embankment worked like a ski jump.”
Police and medical workers will carry out testing on a blood sample taken from the driver to determine if alcohol or drugs played a role in the incident.
