Woman jailed over 23-mile wrong-way motorway trip

A WOMAN who drove 23 miles the wrong way along a motorway after doing a U-turn in the carriageway while twice over the drink-drive limit was jailed for nine months yesterday.

Deborah Hunt, 43, drove down the fast lane of the M5, dodging oncoming vehicles before stopping on the hard shoulder.

A mother of three of Langport, Somerset, Hunt was sentenced at Bristol Crown Court after admitting dangerous driving, driving with excess alcohol and driving without insurance.

She wept in the dock as Judge Mark Horton said he would be failing in his public duty if he did not jail her immediately.

Judge Horton said: “You risked causing massive loss of life and huge destruction of property. I would be failing in my duty if I did not reflect the seriousness of what you did by imposing an immediate custodial sentence.”

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, which may have resulted in her own death or serious injury.”