Besides not slowing down for fog and crashing into each other 80 at a time, another unusual – for me – thing about driving in Austria is the phenomenon of the Geisterfahrer, which translates as “ghost driver” or, less accurately but more interesting, “ghost rider”. It means someone who is driving the wrong way on the freeway.

This happens in most countries, I imagine, but the fact that they even have a word for it here tells you something. About 8 million people live in Austria, not all of them drivers, yet they have between 300 and 400 Geisterfahrer annually.

Car radios are set up so that, no matter what you’re listening to, a different station or even a CD or tape, when a Geisterfahrer announcement comes on, it breaks in and you’re warned. There was another one this morning, in another part of the country, but the warnings come on nationally.

They commission studies to find out why this happens and how to prevent it. The main reason, I think, is poor freeway design. If any freeway designers are reading this: stop putting offramps and onramps right next to each other, dude! That’s not a hard one to figure out. Even with “no entry” signs, or the new big skull-and-crossbone “go back, wrong way” signs, you’re not going to prevent it. Onramps and offramps have to be unambiguous. Because anyone can be distracted – not only confused old people, or some drunk on his way home from filling up on new wine someplace.

It can happen so easily. It just takes a second of distraction, like “oh honey, the baby is vomiting all over her carseat again” and then you have, “not only is she vomiting, everyone else is driving the wrong way!”