Drunken man with cone on his head played motorway chicken

A drunken man brought gridlock to a Hampshire motorway when he walked along with a traffic cone on his head, playing chicken with traffic. Commuters missed international flights, meetings and deadlines after they were trapped in the chaos when the motorway was shut by police, a court heard.

The early morning drama saw the M3 closed for over an hour-and-a-half while officers tried to detain Darren Redding, who had drunk 24 cans of lager. Southampton Crown Court heard how PC David Dyer, the first officer to arrive on the scene at 5am, saw Redding with a traffic cone on his head and playing chicken with traffic on the inside lane of the northbound carriageway near Eastleigh.

Prosecutor Siobhan Linsley described how he approached the 40-year-old who then got on to railings on the bridge over Chestnut Avenue and began shouting. “He told the officer not to come any closer or he would jump. He appeared agitated and emotional but eventually allowed him to come to ten metres, but no closer. He wanted to be listened to about how horrible the world was and the plight of children in Africa. His behaviour kept changing from being quiet and then turned into a rage,” she told the court.


Photo from here.

After threatening to jump or run into traffic, the motorway was closed at 5.28am. Another officer then joined PC Dyer but Redding said he didn’t like him and wanted a female officer present, threatening to jump and dangling his legs over the railings to force the issue. At one point Redding took off his top and said he would stay there all day.

Two trained negotiators were drafted in and 40 minutes later the southbound section of the motorway was opened at 7am. Redding gave himself up and was detained under the Mental Health Act and the entire motorway was reopened.

Redding, of Dell Road, Southampton, pleaded guilty to causing a public nuisance and received a nine-month suspended sentence coupled with 200 hours unpaid work. Recorder Alistair Malcolm QC said: “If this had been a deliberate attempt to disrupt people’s lives, I would have no hesitation in passing a substantial prison sentence but it wasn’t your intention to disrupt people in the way you did, and it wasn’t planned. You were depressed, having what in layman’s terms was a breakdown, you were drunk and you didn’t realise the disruption you were causing.’’