Motorist Drives Down a Pedestrian Walkway, Spends Night Stuck In Car

The BBC reports that a man was extracted from his car after he wedged it between the walls of a pedestrian-only walkway to a pier in Dunquin, in County Kerry, Ireland.

Authorities suggested that the driver was stuck on Tuesday night and spent more than a dozen hours inside the car, until the ferry crew arrived Wednesday morning and called for help. Irish policed arrived and removed the driver, but the car was jammed in the walkway until noontime.

The pier is a walkway for passengers boarding the Blasket Island Ferry, which transports people to and from the six Blasket Islands off County Kerry.

Sibéal Ní Lubhaing, of Blasket Island Ferries, told the BBC that staff had “never seen anyone drive that far down” path, which is shown in the photo above to be long, steep, winding and barely wide enough to allow two people to pass, let alone a car.

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“We were actually in awe of him, because there are couple of very sharp turns that you’d think a car could not navigate,” she said.

“There’s also huge signs saying ‘don’t drive’ going down to the pier.”

The driver appeared to be in shock when ferry employees found him on Wednesday. “We’re not sure, but it seems like he was there from about ten o’clock on Tuesday,” Lubhaing told the BBC. “After he got stuck, he didn’t ring anyone for help although he had a mobile phone.

“When the crews found him, he was reluctant to leave the car. I think the shock hit him and he wanted to stay in the vehicle.

“But, when he saw the police uniforms, he seemed more reassured and we were able to get him out through the boot.

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“It was fairly innocent, everyone makes mistakes. Because it’s our busy season there was a lot of people here this morning who saw what happened.

“But, the main thing now is that he’s safe. We’re happy he’s OK.”

Driving on pedestrian walkways is a common enough occurrence. In April of 2016, for example, the Holliston Reporter posted photos of a car turning around after becoming lost on the Holliston Rail Trail, an incident that resulted in the proceeds of a 5k race being devoted to the placement of bollards on the trail to prevent cars from driving on it in the future.

In 2014, a truck driver in Milwaukee drove a tractor-trailer with a 53-foot trailer over two pedestrian bridges and told police that his GPS routed him that way.