It's the kind of scene that might be played for laughs in a movie, but in reality could easily have ended in tragedy.
A dressing gown-clad elderly woman is lucky to be alive after driving a mobility scooter onto a Gungahlin Drive on-ramp, later claiming to be on her way home from North Canberra Hospital.
Jeff Chandler was driving along Belconnen Way on the evening of Tuesday, September 7, when he saw the woman travelling on the shoulder of the citybound lanes past Haydon Drive.
By the time Mr Chandler managed to turn his car around, the woman was travelling up the on-ramp to Gungahlin Drive, where three lanes merge into one and the posted speed limit is 90kmh.
Mr Chandler parked his car behind the scooter to protect the woman from other vehicles and then spoke with her before calling emergency services.
"People were driving past at 100kmh and I didn't feel particularly safe,'' Mr Chandler said.
"She was pretty incoherent and wasn't overly happy to talk to me at first. She said, 'I'm just going home'."
Mr Chandler praised the "awesome" police officers who arrived at the scene and looked after the woman before an ambulance arrived.
He said the woman told him she been taken to North Canberra Hospital earlier that day by ambulance but decided to leave after several hours.
"That an old duck could just walk out of the hospital - that's just wild,'' Mr Chandler said.
"There's meant to be measures in place for people leaving the hospital. She had gone far enough by that time that someone should have been looking for her.''
A Canberra Health Services spokesperson was unable to confirm if the woman had attended North Canberra Hospital, or any of the organisation's other facilities. And if the woman had been in the hospital or another nearby facility, it is unclear how she got access to a mobility scooter.
In the wake of the recent deaths of two cyclists involved in a crash on Gungahlin Drive, Mr Chandler was disappointed more motorists hadn't stopped to assist, or at least slowed down.
A police spokesperson said officers from Belconnen Station had attended the scene at about 8pm and waited with the woman until paramedics arrived.
"ACT Policing would also like to thank the passer-by who alerted police to the situation,'' the spokesperson said.
