/ 11 May 2007

Man drives 7km in wrong direction on motorway

An 87-year-old man accidentally drove the wrong way for 7km down an Austrian motorway before being stopped, police said on Thursday.

No accident resulted from the ride on Wednesday night. The man said the rain and darkness had caused him to go in the wrong direction.

“It’s a miracle that there was no accident, especially since he kept scrupulously to his right and drove in the passing lane,” said Maximilian Ulrich, a police spokesperson in the south-eastern city of Graz.

According to official statistics, driving in the wrong direction results in about a half-dozen deaths per year in Austria, where a system of two-direction highway entrance ramps contributes to the problem. — AFP