SAPPORO – An 83-year-old man drove a car on a railway track in Hokkaido for about 1.2 kilometers before becoming stuck at a crossing, police said Wednesday.
The man apparently entered the railway track at another crossing on the JR Muroran Line around 10 p.m. Tuesday and continued to drive the vehicle after passing Shiraoi Station. No trains were passing at the time and he was not injured, the police said.
According to Hokkaido Railway Co., the car went unnoticed as it passed the station because staff there left at 6 p.m. after finishing their work.
The man told police officers that he thought the track was a road and that he got stuck when he tried to pull off at the second crossing. A female passerby saw the stranded vehicle and alerted the police.
JR Hokkaido said a freight train was traveling behind the man’s vehicle but it stopped at Shiraoi Station when the woman hit the emergency button at the crossing.
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