Skip to main content

Lost in transit

An Australian pensioner sparked concern when he became lost on a short drive to the shops to buy a newspaper one morning. The 81-year-old man ended up 600km away and explained to police after that he had continued with his journey because he enjoyed driving.
February 22, 2012 Read time: 1 min
An Australian pensioner sparked concern when he became lost on a short drive to the shops to buy a newspaper one morning. The 81-year-old man ended up 600km away and explained to police after that he had continued with his journey because he enjoyed driving. The man had been visiting friends in Yass, a town to the south of Sydney in New South Wales when he set off. Eight hours later, having made a wrong turn on the highway, he stopped to ask police for directions on his arrival in Geelong in Victoria. The man says he does not wish to buy a GPS navigation system however, explaining that this will take the fun out of driving.

Related Content

  • East African authorities trying to cut spiraling road death rates
    December 10, 2013
    Road fatality rates are rising in East Africa, despite attempts to stem the tide – Shem Oirere writes When a passenger bus in Kenya killed 42 people on August 29th 2013, it coincided with the release of a World Health Organisation (WHO) report that painted a grim picture of the status of road safety in East Africa. The accident at Ntulele shopping centre along the Nairobi-Narok highway, 90km from capital Nairobi, occurred when the bus heading to western Kenya lost control and crashed. The driver is said to
  • Construction materials and road design in East Africa
    June 25, 2013
    An envisaged shortage in the supply of angular rock or crushed stone in Tanzania and a determination to conserve the environment by Kenyan authorities dictated the engineering design of a multi-national road linking the two largest economies in Eastern Africa. Shem Oirere reports The cost of buying crushed stone or hiring a site for mining the material and the expenses of moving it from the crushing site to the project area, saw designers opt for an intermediate alignment and discarding of the inner and out
  • Developments in tolling technology
    February 27, 2012
    Jason Barnes reviews the last few decades and the future of tolling technology. Tolling and charging technology has evolved significantly over the last three decades and that evolution is perhaps best illustrated by reductions in or complete removal of impedances to physical progress. Once, it was customary for a driver to pull up to a barrier, make some form of cash payment to a human operative in a booth, and then wait for the barrier to be raised before proceeding. Humans were eventually complemented and
  • Norway drops planned fixed link between Moss and Horten
    October 25, 2018
    Norway’s Road Administration has stopped investigations into a proposed bridge or tunnel spanning 10.5km of the Oslofjord between Moss and Horten, according to Norwegian media. The Ministry of Transport has ordered Veivesendet to cancel consultations amid the government’s growing concern over the cost of any fixed link across the narrows, around 65km south of the capital Oslo. The half-hour car-ferry crossing as part of National Highway 19 will continue as usual. Several thousand people and vehicles m