Asleep or no brakes? Police have two theories for 79-year-old in stranger's living room

Shortly before 5pm on Tuesday, police in Koper received the kind of call Ankaran, a small town on the Adriatic coast, does not want often: instead of taking a bend, a car had gone straight on, across a meadow, across a driveway and right through the wall of an apartment block on Regentova ulica.

"An elderly man was driving on the road from Hrvatini towards Ankaran. In a right-hand bend the driver continued straight, crossing a grassy area and a driveway. The car then crashed violently into a ground-floor apartment of the building on Regentova ulica." (translated)

The front of the car came to a stop in the middle of the living room of a ground-floor apartment: no knocking, no doorbell, no warning. The 79-year-old driver and his passenger, a year younger, were trapped in the twisted metal.

"In the crash, the driver and his passenger, a year younger, were trapped in the vehicle. Firefighters of the Koper Fire Brigade freed them from the vehicle using technical rescue. Both people in the vehicle suffered injuries." (translated)

Why the driver went straight instead of taking the bend has not been officially explained. According to unofficial information from the police, however, investigators are checking two possibilities: that he suddenly fell asleep at the wheel, or that the braking system failed. Further investigation is supposed to show which of the two holds. Meanwhile, police have not ruled out a suspicion of a criminal offence either, and have ordered an expert examination of the driver.

The owner of the apartment thus got, without warning, a view from his living room of the front bumper of a stranger's car, probably the first and last thing he ever expected to see from a neighbour in the middle of his lounge.