A Florida Highway Patrol officer has admitted his incredulity at a woman who pranged her car while shaving her privates.

Megan Mariah Barnes, 37, was driving her Thunderbird in Key West last week when she piled into the back of a Chevrolet pickup carrying four people. Or rather, although she was in the driver's seat, it was actually her ex-hubby Charles Judy who was holding the wheel while she tidied herself up down below.

A Highway Patrol spokesman explained that the pair drove on for about a kilometre down the road before pulling the old driver/passenger switcheroo - unsurprising since Barnes was the day before "convicted and sentenced to nine months of probation for DUI and driving with a suspended licence", deprived of her licence for five years and "ordered to get her car impounded".

Swapping places with Judy didn't fool cops, though, because the airbag in the driver’s seat had not deployed and he had "burns from the passenger side airbag that proved he had not been in the driver’s seat".

Trooper Gary Dunick, who attended the scene, gasped: "If I wasn't there, I wouldn't have believed it. About 10 years ago I stopped a guy in the exact same spot ... who had three or four syringes sticking out of his arm. It was just surreal and I thought, 'Nothing will ever beat this.' Well, this takes it."

In case you're wondering just why Barnes was trimming her hedge, she explained that she was on her way to a rendezvous with her boyfriend and wanted to be "ready for the visit".

She was charged with "driving with a revoked license, reckless driving, leaving the scene of a wreck with injuries and driving with no insurance", and faces a possible year in jail if found guilty of violating her probation. Judy was not charged.

The occupants of the other vehicle were treated for minor injuries, KeysNews.com notes. ®