Police: Pope injury caused nuns to speed

TURIN, Italy, July 20 (UPI) -- Police in Turin, Italy, say three nuns were caught driving 120 mph on their way to visit Pope Benedict XVI, who had been hurt in a fall.

A Turin police spokesman said when the nuns' car was stopped as it was speeding to the Italian commune where Benedict was on summer holiday, the nun behind the wheel said they were anxious to check on the injured religious leader, The Daily Telegraph (Britain) reported Sunday.

"We had heard how the Pope had fallen over and we were on our way to make sure he was OK," the nun, identified only as Sister Tavoletta, 56, reportedly told police officers.

Benedict fractured his wrist after slipping in a bathroom last week, forcing him to undergo surgery to repair the injury.

The unidentified police spokesman said Tavoletta was fined $536 and lost her driver's license for a month as the result of the speeding incident with her fellow nuns, ages 65 and 78. The identities of the other nuns were not reported.

"Hopefully Sister Tavoletta will be making sure she confesses her bad driving the next she goes to confession," the police official told the Telegraph.