What happened
During the approach for landing, the pilot of the glider was flying at an altitude slightly higher than desired. In an attempt to descend, the pilot pulled the spoiler handle twice. While the pilot believed they heard the sound of spoilers deploying, they did not visually confirm the deployment of the surfaces.
Instead of activating the spoilers, the pilot had inadvertently pulled the flap handle. This error caused the aircraft to overshoot the runway. The pilot then elected to perform an emergency landing on a road located adjacent to the departure end of the runway. During the landing sequence, the glider struck a tree, resulting in a ground loop that severed the right wing and tore off the empennage.
The pilot was not injured in the accident.