About 8:15 p.m. Thursday, the Perry Police Department and Dallas County Sheriff’s office began to receive multiple reports of a vehicle traveling eastbound in the westbound lanes of Iowa Highway 141.
Perry officers responded, traveling as far east as U.S. Highway 169, but they did not find the wrong-way driver.
Woodward Police Department Chief Joe Cox finally found the turned-around traveler near 150th Street on Iowa Highway 141.
“He was an 87-year-old guy from California in a rental car visiting his sister,” Cox said. “He had no idea he was in the wrong lane.”
Cox said he stopped the motorist and oriented him to the rural Iowa roadway.
“He thought it was just a two-lane highway,” Cox said. “People were flashing their headlights at him, but he thought it was because he was bright-lighting them.”
There were no injuries reported or citations issued.
Omg. He should not be driving at all. They should have called someone to come get him!!
I saw this kind of thing frequently when working in front of the hotel. I lost track of how often I saw folks making a left off First Avenue and driving east on the boulevard’s westbound lane.