A traffic law enforcement officer in southwestern China's Chongqing Municipality was astonished when a legless driver emerged from a car during a routine check at an expressway checkpoint on Tuesday morning.

It was the second physically challenged driver Chongqing's expressway traffic law enforcement team had stopped recently.

The driver of the Citroen sedan was not licensed but had been driving for more than five years, the Chongqing Evening News reported yesterday.

He had adapted his automatic-transmission car by attaching control sticks to the brake and accelerator pedals.

Another legless driver, a man surnamed Liu from Chongqing's Yuzhong District, was caught driving his car at 153 kilometers an hour when he was stopped by officers earlier this month.

Some physically challenged people had a strong will to drive, said the head of the city traffic law enforcement team.

Meng Qingyu, another legless man in his 50s, made a living by driving an unlicensed taxi in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, media reports said.

Meng, from Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang Province in northeast China, lost his legs and left hand in 1976 in a train crash.

He refitted his car with control sticks on the accelerator, brake and clutch.

(Shanghai Daily August 28, 2008)