Man deliberately crashed car into tree to test the airbags

Motorist Uwe Schrager, 45, has had his licence confiscated after he was caught deliberately crashing his car into a tree "to test the airbags". Officers turned up at the crash site at Goslar in Lower Saxony in central Germany after another motorist reported seeing the Ford Mondeo smash into a tree.

When they arrived they found Schrager putting the cars bumper and other parts into the boot of the car so that he could drive the wrecked vehicle back home and get it repaired. And when asked how the accident had happened Schrager, who tested negative for drugs or alcohol, readily admitted that it had been deliberate.



He said: "I knew that the car was fitted with airbags but I didn't trust that they would work, so I wanted to test them. I felt it was better to have a low speed crash that I was likely to survive if they didn't work rather than a high-speed crash when I only found out when it was too late that they didn't work." Police said that the airbags had gone off and that the man had expected to be able to put them back afterwards, but had then discovered that this wasn't possible.

Schrager apparently expected the insurance company to put the car back together again but was told that wouldn't work now that he had admitted deliberately crashing. In addition police confiscated his driving licence and reported him to the German DVLA who will now order him and to carry out psychiatric tests. The police spokesman said: "They will need to carry out psychiatric test to determine whether the man is suitable to have a licence at all. He had apparently crashed into two walls at lower speeds before he finally hit the tree. That is not normal behaviour."