Drunk woman jailed for driving the wrong direction for 23 miles on the motorway

A drunken mother who sped down a motorway in the wrong direction for 23 miles while twice the drink drive limit has been jailed for nine months. Deborah Hunt, 43, performed two U-turns in the middle of the M5 in her partner’s Peugeot 806 and almost collided with a police car with its blue lights flashing. The mum-of-three entered the southbound carriageway at Junction 24 near Bridgwater, Somerset, at around 11pm but realised she wanted to go northbound instead. She performed a U-turn from the slow lane into the fast lane before driving northbound up the carriageway at 60mph.



Terrified motorists made at least 10 calls to police – who finally caught up with Hunt almost three junctions after she had joined the motorway. Jobless Hunt then performed another U-turn from the fast lane to the hard shoulder and only stopped after she ran out of fuel. When officers reached the former financial advisor she was ”strongly smelling” of alcohol and desperately trying to restart her engine. She wept loudly in the dock at Bristol Crown Court as His Honour Judge Mark Horton sentenced her to nine months imprisonment.

He told her: ”You took control of the most dangerous weapon placed in the hands of members of the public in this country – a motor vehicle. You did so when you were drunk, two and a half times the legal limit. You were going in the wrong direction and so you did a U-turn to then drive in the fast lane of the motorway on the wrong side of the road at 60mph. You drove something slightly in excess of 20 miles on the motor way on the wrong side of the road causing terror to members of the public who were lawfully using the motorway and travelling in the right direction.


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”You risked causing massive loss of life, large damage to property and the ruination of the lives of all of those who would have been affected by that. You were not even insured to drive the vehicle so if there had been damage and loss others would have had to pick up the bill.” He sentenced her to seven months imprisonment for dangerous driving and a further two months for driving under the influence of alcohol. Judge Horton also banned Hunt from driving for 15 months and said she would have to prove to the Secretary of State that she was sober before her licence was returned.