Watch: Moment tourist accidentally reverses down slope after running red light in Central Otago

Footage captured of a car accidentally reversing down a slope after running a red light. Photo / Blair Powell

It could be a tragic story but, luckily, it's just a hilarious one.

A New Zealand driver caught the moment a tourist had to reverse out of a one-lane bridge after running a red light into oncoming traffic and ended up down a bank.

The incident happened on Friday afternoon in Central Otago.

Blair Powell, who shot the video, told the Herald the incident involved two tourists driving a rental vehicle.

Powell said he'd been driving along the road behind them for a while and their driving was "far from flash".

"They passed me at speed at first," he recalls, adding that, once they approached Beaumont Bridge, a one-lane bridge, they did not even seem to notice the traffic light was there.

"They went straight through the red light, completely ignored it," he said.

A Toyota Hilux truck can be seen approaching from the other direction and the driver in the rental vehicle has to reverse out of the bridge and give way to the truck.

Footage captured of a car accidentally reversing down a slope after running a red light. Photo / Blair Powell

Powell, who lives in Gore, says despite the appalling driving, he did not expect to witness them reversing all the way down the slope.

No one was injured in the incident and, according to Powell, police were called and took a statement and told the driver to arrange to get the rental car towed.

The video was uploaded to Facebook on Friday afternoon and has gone viral, getting more than 524,000 views in just 16 hours.