Had fled

Drunk driver triggered a major search operation

Four fire departments searched for the man.

(Bild: FF St. Florian/Inn)

Four fire departments spent hours searching for a man in the Innviertel region on Friday night. His cell phone had sent out an emergency call after a crash. But when the emergency services got to his car, there was no trace of the 29-year-old man from the Innviertel region - so they set off in search of him.

The 29-year-old from the district of Schärding was driving his car in the municipality of St. Florian am Inn on the B137 towards Andorf at around 1.20 am on Friday. In the Rainding area, he suddenly left the road with his vehicle, crashed into the embankment there and the car was badly damaged.

Cell phone triggered alarm
As a result of the accident, the 29-year-old's cell phone triggered an automatic emergency call. However, a subsequent call back from the police was terminated by the driver. A patrol was therefore sent to the scene of the accident. They found the car in the ditch shortly after 1.30 am. However, there was no trace of the driver. The cell phone that had triggered the e-call was found in the wreckage.

Search operation launched
Shortly after 2 a.m., a search operation was launched for the missing driver - four fire departments were deployed. Hours later, at around 5.35 a.m., the driver's sister announced that her brother might be staying with a relative. She was reached by telephone. She stated that there was no longer any need to search for the 29-year-old - he was fine. The police nevertheless stopped by and found that the driver was uninjured, but still had a blood alcohol level of 0.78 per mille.