A husband forgot his wife during a roadside break and drove off for hours believing she was sleeping in the back of the vehicle.

The couple, both aged 70, had been driving along a road in Ferrara, Italy, on the evening of May 2 when the incident took place.

The husband was driving the campervan while his wife slept in the back, but at around 8.30pm, he pulled over to the side of the road due to a technical problem.

He stepped out of the vehicle and went to check on the mechanics, and once he figured out the problem, he got back into the camper to set off again.

But he had not realised that his sleeping wife had awoken during his examination of the vehicle and exited it.

When she noticed her husband was driving off without her, she screamed and yelled from the side of the road but it was of no use.

In her dressing gown and slippers, and without a phone or any personal documents, she was left stranded on the side of the Strada Statale 309 Romea.

Luckily, other motorists noticed the elderly lady on the road and offered her help while calling local police to alert the of the incident.

When cops arrived, they began to gather information from the wife who explained what had happened so they could track him and the camper down.

Meanwhile, the husband was under the impression that his wife was still sleeping in the back of the vehicle.

After around two hours, at 10:30pm, the elderly man was located and informed of what had happened.

In a moment of confusion and panic, he turned the camper around and head back towards Porto Garibaldi to pick up his wife who was waiting with police officers.

It comes after a bride was left stranded beside a motorway in China after clambering out of her white limo for a quick pre-wedding toilet break.

In 2015, named in a report as 26-year-old Zhang Han, the wife-to-be’s big day turned into a nightmare when the incident unfolded during a toll booth traffic jam in Henan province.

Unable to wait any longer, the woman reportedly climbed out of her elaborate chauffeur-driven limousine for a pit stop and told her driver she could catch a lift with the groom.

But when she returned, both her limo and the groom’s car had made it through the toll booths an vanished. 

She had told the groom to wait for her, but he was busy paying the toll and didn’t know what was happening, according to local reports from the time. 

Having left everything on the seat, she wandered along the side of the motorway until she could track down a traffic officer.

She then had to phone the groom, who realised his mistake and fetched her – leaving hundreds of guests waiting for her big moment.