A driver tried to tow a flatbed truck by wedging the front of it in the boot of his car – and securing it with just one strap.
The motorist removed the front wheels, doors and engine from the truck to lighten the load and hoisted it into the rear of his grey hatchback. He then lashed the two together with a single blue strap and set off along the road in Gloucester, where police stopped him.
Gloucestershire Police officers tweeted a photo of the potentially dangerous combination and added: “Photos of a stop by one of our units in Gloucester – car towing a car with a van strapped on the back. The van was quite literally strapped to the car. Driver reported for dangerous condition. No lights too.”
Plans for new London bridge
Designs have been unveiled for a new bridge across the Thames in London – thought to be the first in a major city centre to incorporate the needs of both cyclists and pedestrians.
Four proposals for the bridge, which will link Pimlico with Nine Elms in south London, were shortlisted from 74 initial entries in March in a competition run by Wandsworth Council.
The bridge must be high enough to allow large boats to pass below, but not too steep for pedestrians and cyclists to climb. The designs must also enable movement by bikes and walkers in both directions at peak times.
401 marathons in 401 days
A man who ran his first marathon just three years ago will attempt to run 401 marathons in 401 days.
Benjamin Smith, 33, will run the 26.2 mile distance every single day for just over 13 months to raise funds for anti-bullying and equality causes in the UK. Mr Smith, from Bristol, is hoping to raise £250,000 for Stonewall and Kidscape as he covers more than 10,000 miles – the equivalent of running from London to Sydney.
He was bullied while at school, an experience which affected him into adulthood, but after coming out as gay and also discovering a passion for running, he has found happiness in recent years. Now he wants to help those who may have been similarly affected.
Swiss soldiers keeping cows cool
Cows sizzling under Switzerland’s summer sun are getting help from an unexpected ally – the Swiss army.
Soldiers have been ordered to help keep cows cool amid a week-long heatwave by installing eight artificial reservoirs in the Jura mountains to supply the animals with drinking water.
Super Puma helicopters will scoop water out of nearby lakes and fly it up to pastures. The army last took on similar missions during the 2003 European heatwave that killed thousands of people.
University opens simulated city
A university in the US has opened a simulated city that will be used to test driverless vehicles.
The 32-acre site at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor has building facades, a roundabout, brick and gravel roads, a motorway slip-road and other driving features. Researchers will be able to test how cars interact at a junction and how signals work in a tunnel.
The $10 million (£6.4 million) site was several years in the making and it will be run by the Mobility Transformation Centre, a partnership between the university, state and federal governments and car companies, in the hope it will speed up the development of driverless technology.
Hybrid game is new business idea
A Detroit entrepreneur believes he has scored a touchdown with his new business idea. Or thrown a strike. Actually, it’s both.
The American football-bowling hybrid game of fowling, which inventor Chris Hutt says is “simple yet difficult, infuriating yet hilariously fun”, is the draw at a 34,000 square foot repurposed industrial site in Hamtramck, Michigan. The Fowling Warehouse features 20 lanes where players or teams try to be the first to knock down all 10 of their opponents’ bowling pins by tossing a football from a distance of up to 48 feet.