Wrong-Way Driver Dropped His Smartphone

A 25-year-old Tampa man is the latest in a long line of wrong-way drivers to get pulled over by local authorities.

This time, however, the driver wasn’t intoxicated – he chose to go back to retrieve a dropped smartphone on Interstate 275.

The incident unfolded around 5:39 a.m. when the Florida Highway Patrol received reports about a motorcycle going the wrong way, wrote Sgt. Steve Gaskins in an email to media. When troopers started looking for the culprit, they found Matthew James Kennedy standing on the southbound inside shoulder next to a parked 2015 Harley-Davidson motorcycle that was facing north.

“Kennedy explained he had entered the interstate at Busch Boulevard and was traveling southbound listening to music from his smart phone,” Gaskins wrote.

It seems he dropped the phone south of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and traveled back on the inside shoulder to try and find it.

No charges were filed, but Kennedy’s bike was towed since he had a suspended license, Gaskins said.

Another wrong-way incident Thursday morning did result in charges. That driver was charged with a DUI after the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office pulled him over on the Veterans Expressway.

Photo courtesy of the Florida Highway Patrol