Man who flipped his car trying ‘to avoid an octopus’ arrested on suspicion of drug-driving

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A man has been arrested on suspicion of drug-driving in Devon after a “serious” car crash he said happened when he “swerved to avoid an octopus”.

The car ploughed through a hedge and overturned after leaving the A381 near Kingsbridge at about 5.15pm on Tuesday.

Writing on Facebook, the official account for the Kingsbridge area of Devon and Cornwall Police said: “Emergency services are currently dealing with a single vehicle RTC on the A381 by the South Milton turn where a car has overturned.

“The driver stated he swerved to avoid an octopus. He is currently in custody on suspicion of drug-driving.”

A spokeswoman for the force said: “He did a bit of a slow roll into a ditch. An ambulance went out and the driver was checked over by paramedics but there weren’t injuries enough to go to hospital.”

The man, from Salcombe, was arrested on suspicion of driving while unfit through drugs or drink and remains in custody.

A local woman who did not want to be named told The Independent: “A car was driving down the road and obviously it turned over onto its roof and into a field. The driver said he was avoiding an octopus. It isn’t even that close to the sea – though to be fair it was wet yesterday.”

Octopuses are found in waters around the British south coast, but to reach the crash site, it would have had to have crawled over three and a half miles of hilly terrain, or even further if it stuck to the roads.

Katy Kendell, who works in a local pub, told The Independent: “I drove past the incident this morning and the car is completely over the hedge. It wasn’t a minor crash, it was quite serious.

“It’s not common to have octopuses on the road. No, I’ve never heard of anything like that before.”

On the Kingsbridge Police Facebook page, users made a variety of jokes about the incident.

Local woman Kate Moss wrote: “I presume they’ve checked the squid marks to see how fast he was going?!”

“Glad to see you’re kraken down on irresponsible drivers!” said Pepsi-Rae Beaton.

Paul Gaylard said: “The police will be suckers if they fall for that excuse.”

No trace of an octopus was found by the police.

Additional reporting by PA