A pensioner has caused chaos on a Lancashire motorway after driving down the wrong side of the M65 for 15 miles – and past seven junctions. Martha Harwood drove at 40mph on her way home from a friend’s house. The 81-year old grandmother, puzzled by a new road layout, had driven up the exit slip road of junction six. Four people required hospital treatment as the oncoming traffic swerved to avoid Mrs Harwood’s Suzuki Ignis. One person had to be cut free after the car they were in struck the crash barrier.The motorway was shut for five hours as Police halted the retired florist’s car, and cleared up the aftermath.Mrs Harwood was not arrested, but it seems likely that she will have her driving licence revoked following her mistake.She said: 'At first I didn’t think there was anything wrong, then I saw cars coming towards me. It was quite scary, but there was nowhere to turn round so I just kept going.'The Police admitted that it was fortunate that no serious injuries had resulted from the incident.
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Re: Wrong-way pensioner closes motorway
I only said that because the worst motorway journey I had was from Heathrow to Darlington some years ago and the average speed for the whole trip in good weather was 40-50mph purely because of volume of traffic - nightmare and I never want to do it again.
Re: Wrong-way pensioner closes motorway
Thought so but had to check!
I would agree though that 40mph is more dangerous than say 90mph in appropriate circumstances but the converse can also be true. Sometimes I would like to get over 40mph on a motorway!
Re: Wrong-way pensioner closes motorway
Sorry if you misunderstood me I will make myself clearer (it was quite late when I posted).
You mentioned that someone should point out to her she should have been doing 50mph not 40mph. I was merely saying that it was not really relevant to this case so why say it? At the end of the day she was going the wrong way which is really the point and not her speed.
I meant to say how is this relevant to the other thread (i.e Auto-Ban...) and not other post.