Almeria motorway closed over elderly man’s wrong turn confusion

AN ELDERLY driver unwittingly caused havoc on the A7 motorway on Thursday morning (June 9) when he ended up on the wrong side and continued for more than 30 kilometres before being stopped by the police.

More than 80 calls were registered by 112 emergency services and the Guardia Civil just after 10.30am as witnesses and drivers rang in to report that a car was heading from Los Gallardos towards Murcia on the wrong side of the road.

Two Guardia Civil patrols were immediately dispatched, one to close off the motorway to avoid any more traffic meeting the car head on while another was sent to stop him, which it managed to do at Kilometre 551 in the municipality of Huercal-Overa.

The 81-year-old driver, who luckily caused no accidents or injuries with his adventure, later told officers that he thought he might have got a bit confused while getting onto the motorway and taken the wrong slip-road.