98-year-old rescued by workmen after driving onto tram tracks

Clio rescued by passers-by
Any driver who has been on the roads for a number of years is likely to have had their fair share of small mishaps. One 98-year-old woman, however, managed to go a step further and get her car completely stuck on tram tracks in Manchester after taking a wrong turn.

The lady had been driving to morning Mass in her Renault Clio when she turned off the main road and onto the lines of the Manchester tram network, with her gold hatchback becoming marooned on the lines. Unable to move the car forward or back the woman awaited help.

Seeing the car on the tracks bystanders called Metrolink, which runs the city's tram service, however, with no sign of help after half an hour, they decided to take matters into their own hands.

A passing removal man, Stephen Brookbanks, spotted the car on the tracks in Baguley, south of Manchester city centre just before 9am on Tuesday morning, and helped to extricate it. Mr Brookbanks along with a couple of colleagues and bystanders rocked the car from side to side to free it from the rails and move it to safety.

Brookbanks told the Daily Mail: "Me and two of the guys were passing by and saw her, she was old and frail and looked really bewildered.

"Two other guys, truck drivers, saw us struggling and came to help. The lady was very cold and she was walking with a stick."

Brookbanks continued: "You see an old lady on a track and you help. I haven't got a clue where the authorities were. She was there at least 30 minutes."

A spokesperson from the company which operates Metrolink stated that it took their staff 30 minutes to get to the site from their depot, simply due to the length of their journey.

After being freed from the tracks the uninjured lady thanked the helpers and continued on her way to the Sacred Heart, making it there in time for the last few minutes of Mass

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