Long drive

Wrong-way driver on highway unmasked as smuggler

A Ukrainian in a Polish car transporting migrants from Syria through Upper Austria has now been discovered. However, it was more by chance, as the driver drove for six kilometers on the Pyhrn freeway - as a wrong-way driver.

The wrong-way driver was discovered on the Pyhrnautobahn (A 9) on Thursday morning. The 47-year-old Ukrainian had driven the wrong way in Klaus. The route was closed in this direction due to construction work, yet the man drove through four tunnels in the wrong direction. He was only stopped by construction workers in the fifth tunnel, Ottsdorf, in Micheldorf. He drove six kilometers as a wrong-way driver.

Five refugees in the car
This was not the only problem for the Ukrainian: the police discovered that there were five people from Syria in the car with Polish license plates - without legal residence permits. The driver was also driving with a forged driver's license. He was arrested on suspicion of smuggling and forgery of documents, and the public prosecutor's office remanded him in custody. The people being towed, aged between 16 and 34, were also provisionally arrested and handed over to the immigration police in Wels.