Woman driver gets disTRACKted and drives onto railway line

The service now arriving at Platform 4 is the... hang on, that’s not a Metro.

The driver of this Mercedes was being quizzed by police yesterday on suspicion of drink-driving after trundling hundreds of metres down a railway track – as a train was coming the other way.

The stunned loco driver slammed on the brakes to bring the Tyneside Metro service to a grinding halt with just 50 metres to spare.

No one was hurt but passengers had to finish their journey by taxi.

Northumbria police said a “potentially horrendous” accident had been averted after the car driver took a wrong turn at a level-crossing.

Officers called to the scene at 11pm on Tuesday found the shaken woman, 40, still at the wheel. A spokesman said: “She was arrested on suspicion of drink driving.”

It took three hours to remove her car from the tracks at Fawdon station, Newcastle upon Tyne.