La belle Monique
You can see the movie titles now: ‘Passion and Pursuit on the Motorway’, ‘Jealousy of the Long Distance Lorry Driver’; or, as one French paper had it, ‘Rodeo on the Autoroute’. In a terrifying but farcical scenario, two lorry drivers fought a motorway duel in their 38-ton vehicles over a course of more than 60 miles in the Auvergne, south-west France: a furious chase at 80 mph which ended with one man in hospital, the other in jail and blood all over the road. The cause? La belle Monique, wife of driver number 1, who was riding in the cab of driver number 2.
The story began with Jöel André, 31, and apparently well known as a tough guy, leaving home in Clermont-Ferrand early in the morning and driving peacefully towards Saint Étienne. Observing all the rules of the road, he was keeping well to the right when he saw the driver of a lorry behind pull out to overtake him. When it drew level, Jöel glanced into the cabin and saw, to his stupefaction, his wife Monique, whom he imagined safe at home in bed, sitting next to the driver, who turned out to be Patrick Monron, 47.
Monique paled, Jöel turned purple with rage and put his foot down, while his horrified rival tried desperately to escape. First on the motorway, then on the Rout Nationale, they engaged in a mad and dangerous chase through the Puy-do-Dôme, across the Upper Loire and then the Loire itself, passing and repassing each other and forcing other motorists off the road until they finally crashed into each other. That was not the end.
The knights of the road climbed out and continued the battle with what weapons they could find – a crowbar and the handle of an axe. It was a bloody struggle: one duelist (Patrick) had his arm cut to shreds and the other had deep head wounds. Honor still unsatisfied, they got back into their lorries and were off again, this time trying to edge each other into a deep ravine that fell away at one side of the road. But Patrick, the adulterer, had lost so much blood that he passed out, and Monique, who had stayed in his cab all the time, had to take the wheel. She managed to stop the truck and call the police, fire brigade and an ambulance. Yesterday Patrick was in hospital and Jöel in prison. History does not record whether Monique is at bedside or bars.
The film rights are presumably still available.
The Daily Telegraph
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