Dashcam video shows drunken pensioner driving wrong way up motorway

Motorist, 75, jailed for eight months over dangerous road use on M6

Sunday 21 July 2019 08:10 EDT

75-year-old man drives wrong way down M6 motorway

Police have released video footage of a drink-driving pensioner going the wrong way up a motorway.

David Haughton, 75, made a U-turn and headed into oncoming traffic while nearly twice the legal limit for alcohol.

Dashcam footage shows another motorist swerving to avoid a collision with his Volvo car on the fast lane of the M6 in Lancashire.

Police were alerted by members of the public travelling between junctions 32 and 33 near Lancaster at 2.45pm on 23 April.

Officers arrived to find Haughton had already stopped his car on the central reservation.

He was arrested and charged with dangerous driving and drink driving.

On 21 June, Haughton, from Bolton, was sentenced to eight months' imprisonment and banned from the road for two years.

“The potential consequences of his actions could have been fatal,” said Lancashire Police.

The video was issed by police as part of a safety campaign targeting the “Fatal 5” – the five most common causes of fatal road traffic collisions.

They include drink driving, speeding, not wearing a seatbelt and using a mobile phone behind the wheel.