Because sat nav "ordered" it

Altaussee: Porsche gets stuck on the lakeside promenade

Two grapple hoists and a lifting bag were used to get the car back onto the sidewalk

(Bild: FF Altaussee)

The Altaussee fire department had to be called out to an unusual vehicle rescue on Friday. A woman from Salzburg was unable to drive her sports car back and forth along the lakeside promenade. The operation is likely to be expensive for the driver.

"The driver was very lucky," says Christian Fischer, chief fire inspector at the Altaussee volunteer fire department. A section of the lakeside promenade had broken away due to the storms: "That was also the reason why the woman could no longer drive her vehicle back and forth," he sums up.

Driving ban ignored
But let's start from the beginning: on Friday, the fire department was called to an emergency on Lake Altaussee. "The location given was quite unusual, as it was around 350 meters after the beach café," says Fischer.

The sports car was stuck on the narrow gravel footpath and 20 men from the Altaussee fire department (pictured here is Chief Fire Inspector Christian Fischer) rushed to help.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Heinz Weeber, FF Altaussee)

Reversed 200 meters
Drivers are strictly prohibited from driving on the narrow gravel road, but the woman from Salzburg had apparently ignored or overlooked the corresponding prohibition signs: "The path is so narrow that it can sometimes be tight for pedestrians and cyclists here," says the Styrian.

According to Fischer, the woman noticed after around 300 meters that something was wrong: "That's why she tried to drive back in her car. She succeeded for 200 meters, but then it was over".

Vintage car came to the rescue
20 men from the volunteer fire department had to be deployed to recover the vehicle, and the modern sports car was towed away by an "old gentleman" of all things: "We had to use our most powerful 'workhorse', a Puch Haflinger, built in 1963," laughs the firefighter.

Compensation payment and fine
Will the driver now have to pay for the operation? "Yes, of course," says Fischer. "There is a separate tariff scale according to which operations like this are billed. Of course, our time is included in the calculation".

Incidentally, the woman said that the reason for her wrong turn was that the sat nav had shown her the way home on this route.