Drunk drivers and overreliance on satnav devices thought to be behind 13% rise
Incidents of vehicles being driven the wrong way on England’s motorways rose to almost 900 in the last 12 months, an increase of 13%, according to figures described as “frightening”.
Alarmed motoring groups called for technological interventions to reverse the increase in these potentially lethal driving errors, which are thought to be linked to an overreliance by drivers on satnav devices.
The death of three men in June 2022 when a stolen van was driven in the wrong direction by a 15-year-old boy who crashed into a taxi on the M606 near Bradford, West Yorkshire.
Police in Gloucestershire released footage of a four-vehicle crash caused by a drunk woman driving the wrong way for more than two miles on the M5 near Tewkesbury last October.
West Mercia police appealed for dashcam footage in June this year after a VW Golf involved in a head-on crash with a van was believed to have been “deliberately driven in the wrong direction at speed” on the M5 near Spetchley, Worcestershire.
