Daisy from Eindhoven performed a heroic deed on Thursday afternoon. When she saw a motorist speeding down a street with police cars behind her, she decided to block the road with her car. Although the driver continued to accelerate and Daisy’s car was badly destroyed, she does not regret her action. “Because it could have been a lot worse.”
Daisy thought she would drive quietly to an appointment at the Catharina Hospital in Eindhoven a little after noon on Thursday. The peace soon passed when she saw a motorist speeding out of a street towards Doctor Cuyperslaan.
“I could do two things at that point: make me get away or block the road with my car so the driver couldn’t get through,” she says. “I chose the latter without hesitation, because I wasn’t going to let the driver go when I saw it.”
Yet that was due to the situation Daisy was in at the time. “If my daughter had been in the car with me, I wouldn’t have taken the risk. Especially not when the driver continued to accelerate even against my car and I heard yelling and police dogs.”
Those were scary moments for her. As she describes: “I was in the car and felt the man hit my car with his bumper and kept on accelerating. I could have seen everything if I looked back, but I didn’t dare make eye contact with the driver. I was afraid it was a criminal who would remember my face or suddenly start shooting.”
Fortunately, it ended well because the police were able to arrest the man because of Daisy’s action. “I don’t regret my action because it could have been much worse. If he had continued at high speed, he came to a busy intersection with many pedestrians.”
A police spokeswoman said that officers went after the man because he had taken the car without permission. The driver ignored the stop sign given to him by the officers and drove off. The officers give chase.
The chase lasted more than ten minutes. During the chase, the driver also ignored red traffic lights. Thanks to Daisy, we managed to force the man to stop in the Lieven de Keylaan.
The police spokeswoman emphasizes that such help from citizens is heartwarming, but also not without danger. “I would like to call on citizens to be careful with this. After all, a cat in a corner makes strange jumps!”
In addition to Daisy’s car, several police cars were also damaged during the mad ride. What possessed the man has not been disclosed.
The Eindhoven driver has some pain in her neck and back after the collision. “But luckily it’s not that bad. I was in the right place at the right time. As if I had known in advance, I had put on my seat belt while I hardly ever do that for that short distance to the hospital.”
And the hospital appointment? “I still got it. I left well in time.”
The man was arrested in the Doctor Cuyperslaan in Eindhoven.
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