A 30-year-old man was found guilty of DUI and dangerous driving, putting other drivers’ lives at risk on the A-7 and was sentenced to a year’s imprisonment.

It was at 08.45h on Sunday the 18th of September that the man was stopped after driving 7.5 kilometre between Salobreña and Almuñécar the wrong way along the A-7 autovía.

When he was stopped, after travelling east along the westbound lanes between the Lobres and Taramay junctions, he was found to be three times over the alcohol limit and blood tests gave a positive reading for cocaine.

During his ‘outing’ he passed a bus carrying 55 passengers on an excursion trip to Málaga in the middle of a tunnel. Thanks to the quick reactions of the female bus driver, a fatal accident was avoided.

He was also fined 1,080 euros and will lose his licence for six years. The 1-year’s imprisonment is a suspended sentence as long as he doesn’t break the law during the next three years.

As the driver… or ex driver, accepted the Public Prosecutor’s sentence recommendations, the case did not reach trial. He denied, however, having passed the bus in the tunnel so when the Ideal newspapers published an account, quoting the Guardia Civil report, the man’s family was not happy, claiming that his driving the wrong-way along the autovia was fruit of an error and not a deliberate choice – the newspaper had used a headline containing the word “kamikaze.”

The family also claims that once he realized that he had made the mistake, he turned on his hazard-warning lights and flashed his headlights to warn oncoming drivers, because he considered continuing to the next exit was safer than trying to turn around on a dual-carriageway.

The Guardia Civil, on the other hand denied this and pointed out that they had had to chase him, keeping to the hard shoulder for a distance of 400 metres before he pulled over and stopped.

(News: Salobrena, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)