To be fair, he was in the slow lane.

Drivers on the A27, a busy six-lane freeway that runs along the south coast of England, got a shock when they passed Stanley Murphy as he went about his morning errands. Seemingly unfazed by the speeding traffic, the 90-year-old was puttering along at 8 mph. On a motorized scooter.

Mr. Murphy's ill-advised detour was brought to a mercifully safe end by pickup-truck driver James Dunne, who stopped in front of the unlikely motorist and flagged him down. Not that the senior citizen gave up on his adventure without a fight, even attempting what was presumably his first overtaking maneuver of the day to get around the truck.

Happily, Dunne was able to coax Murphy to a halt and, once police arrived to drive the old gent home, return the scooter in the back of his truck. "I went out to get a paper and took a wrong turning," explained Murphy after his ordeal. "I don't know how I ended up on the A27, but I'm thankful to everyone who helped me."

No word yet on whether the redoubtable Mr. Murphy intends to upgrade to something with a little more muscle (like a lawnmower?) before his next big road trip.