Woman jailed for driving wrong way along motorway

Deborah Hunt drove at 60 miles an hour late at night along the M5 in Somerset, carrying out a U-turn, dodging oncoming traffic and “causing terror in members of the public”. CCTV cameras showed her travelling part of the way in the fast lane.

The mother-of-three, from Langport, Somerset, was jailed for nine months at Bristol Crown Court after admitting dangerous driving, driving with excess alcohol and driving without insurance.

Alcoholism and stress

The court heard that Hunt, an unemployed former financial adviser, suffered from alcoholism and stress and was involved in a child custody battle with her ex-husband.

Judge Mark Horton was told that she briefly headed south after joining the motorway before stunning other drivers by performing a U-turn and driving north. She was found by police on the hard shoulder struggling to restart the engine of her partner’s Peugeot 806.

Hunt cried as Judge Horton told her: “You drove for something in excess of 20 miles on the wrong side of the road, causing terror in members of the public lawfully using the motorway to travel in the right direction.

You risked causing massive loss of life. Judge Mark Horton

“You risked causing massive loss of life and huge destruction of property. You suffer from a severe illness. Alcoholism is a severe illness. It is tragic in one sense that society has forgotten, in its obsession with the damage caused by drugs, how much more damage is caused by alcohol.

“It is clear that the combination of the stress and alcoholism you have suffered created an extremely dangerous position, culminating in this offence. I would be failing in my duty if I did not reflect the seriousness of what you did by imposing an immediate custodial sentence.”

At least 10 motorists called 999 to report her dangerous driving, but her defence barrister Nigel Askham said her recollection of events was “hazy”. He added: “She cannot say why it is that she was driving up the wrong side of the motorway. It was a ridiculous piece of driving which, in the cold light of day, she has to acknowledge.”

‘Outrageously perilous act’

Superintendent Ian Smith, from Avon and Somerset Police, said: “Deborah Hunt was lucky not to have killed someone or herself. Drink-driving is in itself an inherently dangerous act, but to drive on a motorway contrary to the flow of traffic is an outrageously perilous act that could have resulted in the most catastrophic of consequences.

“What makes this more appalling is the lack of regard she has shown in terms of the consequences of her criminal actions that may have resulted in her own death or serious injury.”

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