'I Wanted To Do Something Crazy'

Maybe instead you could have just got yourself a kitten.

A man who drove for about 90 kilometers the wrong way along two expressways after becoming upset that his cat had died has been arrested, law enforcers said.

The man, 31-year-old Tsutomu Mizumoto, was arrested for violating the Road Traffic Law following the escapade early on Sept. 1.

"I was sad that my pet cat died. I wanted to do something crazy," Mizumoto was quoted as saying when questioned over his actions.

While the 31-year-old hit an expressway vehicle at a checkpoint, he did not collide with any other vehicles and no-one was injured.

Hokkaido Prefectural Police said a driver made an emergency call at about 5:45 a.m. on Sept. 1, reporting a car driving the wrong way along the Sasson Expressway near the Zenibako Interchange in the city of Otaru.

At about 6 a.m. police found Mizumoto's vehicle roughly 15 kilometers away from the interchange, and pursued him, ordering him to stop, but he ignored them, and continued on to the Doo Expressway, heading toward Sapporo the wrong way.

An expressway traffic police unit set up five emergency blockades between the Kitago Interchange in Sapporo's Shiroishi Ward and the Tomakomai-nishi Interchange in Tomakomai, but Mizumoto broke through all of them. At the Sapporo-minami interchange he reportedly went the wrong way through a tollgate. He continued on toward the city of Muroran, but at about 7:15 a.m. he stopped his car at the side of the road and was apprehended by police.