Gerbil's escape from cage blamed for accident

[bijou]

Police say a teenage driver who lost control of her car while scrambling to capture her pet gerbil wasn't cited for an accident that hospitalized two people. Lt. Dave Caron said the gerbil escaped from its cage while the 17-year-old driver was southbound on state Route 51 Tuesday morning.

Making a grab for the fuzzy escape artist, the driver veered off the road and hit a stranded truck hooked to another truck by jumper cables.

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/06/18/national/a121212D61.DTL

Richard Gere could not be reached for a comment.