GERMANY: 103-year-old Dies After Strange Car Accident

BERLIN (Der Tagesspiegel), January 4, 2005: A German woman has set a record for being the country's oldest traffic fatality after she was hit and killed by a car - at age 103, authorities said on Tuesday. The woman, identified only as Gertrude S, was crossing the street near her home in Berlin shortly after dark on New Year's Eve when she was hit by a Volkswagen driven by a 32-year-old man. She was rushed to a nearby hospital, where doctors initially gave her family a good prognosis for full recovery. But she died a few hours later. "It was as though she just decided she had lived long enough," a doctor told Der Tagesspiegel newspaper. 'People that age don't dart' Relatives said she was "fit for her age" and that her worst fear had been becoming bed-ridden and a burden on her family. Police meanwhile say they are baffled by the accident. Eyewitnesses said the VW was not speeding. And a blood test showed the driver was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol. The driver claimed she appeared out of nowhere. "It's a mystery to us," a police spokesperson said. "It's not as though she darted out into the street. People that age don't dart. The old girl was using a walking frame, after all." Police said Gertrude S, became the oldest traffic fatality since such records began being kept after World War 2. She succeeds a 92-year-old woman who was run over in 1999.