A GRANNY returning from a hospital appointment six miles from her home accidentally drove 300 miles to Scotland after missing a turn-off.
Valerie Johnson, aged 83, drove from England to Lanarkshire and her journey only ended when she ran out of fuel in Larkhall.
Her road trip lasted eight hours which saw her take on some of Britain’s busiest motorways.
It all started when the grandmother got confused on the way to her home in Peopleton, a village near Worcester, from an appointment at the nearby hospital.
Usually the six-mile journey takes around 10 minutes in her red Toyota Aygo.
However, Valerie ended up getting caught in a diversion caused by roadworks so she continued heading north on the M5 and the M6.
According to the Daily Record, police launched a search for the pensioner when her concerned family reported her as mssing.
Karen Maskell, her daughter, was shocked when officers told her Valerie had been taken in a couple in Larkhall when she ran out of fuel on May 5 at 12.40am.
Karen, 49, told the Daily Record: “Mum’s next-door neighbour called me to say she hadn’t come back and he was worried. I thought she must have had an accident.
“We called the police and by the time I got to her house, they said they had spotted her car on a traffic camera at Preston at 11pm.
“I said it couldn’t be my mum because she hates driving, she doesn’t usually drive more than three miles.
“But it was her and she was still heading north and we had to get the Scottish police involved.”
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel