A man in his 80s with dementia drove the wrong way on the Incheon International Airport Expressway and collided with an oncoming vehicle.
According to the Incheon Police Agency's highway patrol unit, the car driven by the man, identified only as A, struck an oncoming van at around 11:31 p.m. on the 28th near the Nooji junction on the Seoul-bound side of the expressway in Gyeyang District, Incheon. The agency disclosed the details on the 30th.
Both vehicles swerved just before impact, avoiding a head-on collision.
The van was carrying a driver in his 40s and a passenger, neither of whom was injured seriously enough to require hospitalization.
Investigators found that A had been driving toward Incheon International Airport on the expressway, made a U-turn in front of the airport toll gate and then traveled about 7 kilometers in the wrong direction toward Seoul.
A has mild dementia, and investigators determined he was neither intoxicated nor driving without a license at the time of the crash.
A's family had filed a missing person report shortly before the crash after he failed to return home following an outing earlier that day.
Police plan to question A to determine how he came to drive against traffic and to establish the full circumstances of the crash.
