Chauffeur Was Driving : Reaction to Runcie Skid: ‘Has He Been Drinking?’

GLOUCESTER, England — The Archbishop of Canterbury said today he had to hitch a ride after his car ran off a snowy highway, and the first police officer who heard of his trouble asked if he had been drinking.

Archbishop Robert Runcie, 64, spiritual head of the Church of England and leader of world Anglicans, said neither he nor his driver was hurt when his limousine skidded off the road in Gloucestershire on Tuesday night, but they weren’t able to push the car back onto the highway.

“So we hitched a lift to Gloucester police station to report the incident and ask for help,” he said.

“We went into the police station, and I didn’t like to appear first, so someone went on ahead and announced to the policeman the dramatic news that the Archbishop of Canterbury’s car had gone into a ditch.

“To which, being a good constable of Gloucestershire, his first question was, ‘Has he been drinking?’ ”

The incident was treated as a minor accident followed by an officer’s joke, Runcie said, and his car was back on the road today.