Monday 25th April 2005

Pensioner drives wrong way on m-way

Fifteen miles on a busy motorway

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An 80-year-old motorist had to be stopped by a police roadblock after he drove 15 miles down a busy motorway on the wrong side of the road.

The pensioner ignored oncoming drivers as they hooted their horns and flashed their lights, saying he thought they were warning him there was a speed trap up ahead.

He was eventually stopped by motorway police who blocked off the motorway between the Croatian capital Zagreb and Rijeka in the north of the country and arrested the pensioner, local news agency Hina reported.

The man said he had not realised he was doing anything wrong, despite passing a number of cars with "wildly flashing lights" that were honking their horns at him.

He said: "I noticed people were signalling to me, but I thought they were warning me that there was a police speed check up ahead."

He has been fined £200 and faces losing his licence for six months.

• Ananova.com

[sublimatica]

Good job he wasn't speeding though, eh? Otherwise he'd have been fined £600 and a custodial sentence.

[Davel]

A six month ban - what makes the courts decide that he'll be a better driver in 6 months?

[flooritforever]

He faces losing his licence for 6 months? You mean they'll consider giving it back to him???

This guy should be taken off the road, permanently. He clearly no longer has the level of judgement required to drive a car.

[CiderwithCerbie]

Once when being driven by my mother back from Exeter, she managed to get us going down the wrong side of a dual-carriage way on the A30 near Honiton, when I had raised the alarm, she immediately took off across the central grassed reservation (no barriers). When I asked what she thought she was doing, she told me;

"Don't worry darling, I have done this before"


[She was an actress and a good one - but not a great driver ]

[Rtrak]

Hey, wondered where my grandad had got to!

[will_t]

This is no laughing matter. A neighbour of mine was killed on the M6 by an elderly driver driving south on the north bound side .

Will

[raftom]

As a senior citizen was driving down the freeway, his car phone rang. Answering, he heard his wife's voice urgently warning him, "Herman, I just heard on the news that there's a car going the wrong way on 280. Please be careful!"

"Hell," said Herman, "It's not just one car. It's hundreds of them!"

[tvradict]

I saw a woman (30ish) in a silver Astra (52 Plate) turn onto the M8 at Junction 10 on Saturday, I was sitting behind her and we were turning Right onto the westbound carridgeway. Imagine my Shock and Surprise when she turned onto the westbound EXIT RAMP!!!

She just carried on down before turning onto the hardshoulder and Thankfully driving WEST!

Things would have been very different if anything had been coming off the motorway though.