[Rolebama]

I think we have probably all heard of incidents of people driving the wrong way on motorways and dual carriageways. I have twice experienced it, and on both occasions, I saw that the offenders were driving at excessive speed relative to other circumstances. The first one I met was on slip road at J17 M25. Daylight and I was just about to enter the slip road when I saw the car coming down toward me. I stopped, but they didn't. They went round the roundabout the wrong way, screeching tyres, toward the A412. Second time was this Wednesday night. Heading from Shefford to Hitchin, around 11pm, on the A600. Turned onto the roundabout where the A507 crosses and was met with headlamps on full beam coming from the A507, on the wrong carriageway, blinding me. I swerved to avoid and hit the roundabout resulting in ruined tyre, buckled wheel, bent drop link and a broken lower suspension arm making the car undriveable. In the meantime the other car steered around the back of my car and headed off down the A507 still on the wrong carriageway.
Is it just me or is there an inherent need to speed in the wrong carriageway?

Because of problems loading and unloading the car, and other 'problems', we became the neighbourhood's favourite resident when we were unloading the car at my home at 5 in the morning! At least they booked the onward journey to garage for 9am, a more civilized hour.

[Mark07]

@Rolebama, sorry to hear this, it sounds pretty scary to me. Cars can be repaired/replaced, but thankfully you're ok!

Personally, the only time I can think of seeing someone driving on the wrong side of the carriageway was when i saw (what i assume were) kids on speeding dirtbikes driving towards oncoming traffic... again, nobody was hurt, but I suspect a few were shaken up.

[NMNeil]

As a former cop I saw it on far too many occasions, and they often resulted in fatalities.
Some were drunk or drugged, others confused, but for most there was no obvious reason why they were on the wrong side of the road as often they died in the crash.
https://patch.com/us/across-america/...te-see-numbers
One of the worst, no, the very worst thing I had to do as a cop was waking parents up in the early hours to tell them their son or daughter had been killed by a drunk driver, or in a wrong side of the road crash.
Heartbreaking. 😭

[Drivingforfun]

Not as exciting as driving the wrong way on a dual carriageway but someone was driving along the wrong side of the road in town a few days ago trying to park and someone else got really angry at them and almost swerved into me because they were busy shouting

I must have skipped the page in the Highway Code that states how one person's bad driving gives you the right to drive dangerously yourself

[TC1474]

I have lost count of the number of times I have had to deal with or get involved with vehicles driving the wrong way up a Motorway or dual carriageway, and in my area we are talking about seriously busy Motorways such as the M4, M40, M25 to name but a few.

It has often been a combination of drivers suffering a mental illness, drink drivers, drivers fleeing in a pursuit and will take any risk to escape, and drivers who have misread the signs, become confused and have somehow just made a genuine mistake.

It is frightening when it happens and the end results can be catastrophic. The last 2 I dealt with before I retired were multiple fatalities and all were preventable.

The downside is, that because it is not one of your common everyday occurrences it is pretty low down the pecking order as far as educating the public about the dangers of driving the wrong way up a Motorway or dual carriageway

[Santa]

Despite driving tens of thousands of miles on motorways, I only ever came across it once.

It was early morning and I was driving on the slip road from the M1 South towards the M18 for Hull. As I turned into the slip road I saw headlights coming towards me in the outside lane. I flashed my lights and moved over onto the hard shoulder and soon lost sight of his tail lights as I went round the curve.

I can understand (sort of) people taking the wrong exit from a roundabout, but this person had to make what amounted to a "U" turn to get where he was. I can only assume that they had not intended to take the M18 and, in a moment of madness, decided to turn back. I have no idea what happened afterwards but there were no reports of an accident so I assume that they got away with it unscathed.

[Beelzebub]

Originally Posted by Santa

Despite driving tens of thousands of miles on motorways, I only ever came across it once.

It was early morning and I was driving on the slip road from the M1 South towards the M18 for Hull. As I turned into the slip road I saw headlights coming towards me in the outside lane. I flashed my lights and moved over onto the hard shoulder and soon lost sight of his tail lights as I went round the curve.

I can understand (sort of) people taking the wrong exit from a roundabout, but this person had to make what amounted to a "U" turn to get where he was. I can only assume that they had not intended to take the M18 and, in a moment of madness, decided to turn back. I have no idea what happened afterwards but there were no reports of an accident so I assume that they got away with it unscathed.

I used to work occasionally near a busy motorway junction. It was pretty well a daily occurrence to see someone who had missed their exit reversing for hundreds of yards along the hard shoulder.