A POLICE officer recalled the terrifying experience of seeing a drunk driver heading the wrong way down the M4 towards him at speed.

PC Jay Clifton saw Christopher Duggan, 27, of Ford Street turn onto the M4 and travel east along the hard shoulder of the westbound carriageway at around 5am on February 3.

The quick-thinking officer then joined the motorway on the eastbound carriageway and called for assistance while following Duggan from the opposite side of the road between junctions 16 and 15, before getting ahead of Duggan and entering the westbound carriageway to try and stop him.

The soldier sped towards PC Clifton in a Saab 900 and swerved to avoid the police car by a matter of inches before leaving the M4 at Junction 15 and rejoining it by ignoring a no-entry sign and driving down the exit slip road onto the motorway.

PC Clifton said: "It was one of the most terrifying experiences of my 16 years working in traffic - and one of the worst examples of driving I have ever seen," said PC Clifton. "He drove directly at me and other members of the public with a complete disregard for his own life and that of other road users around him.

"Duggan drove at speed, under the influence of alcohol, and directly in to the path of oncoming traffic. He was extremely lucky that no one was injured and lives were not ruined as a result of his behaviour."

Several police cars arrived to intercept Duggan and they eventually stopped him on the hard shoulder before Membury services after he'd driven nine miles on the wrong side of the road.

He was charged with dangerous driving and driving with alcohol above the legal limit. A breath test showed 82 microgrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35. 

He pleaded guilty to the charges and was going to be jailed for 10 months but after hearing the Lance Corporal will be drummed out of the forces after 10 years' service if he was jailed, a judge suspended the sentence.

For the full court story, click here.

Police crime commisioner Angus Macpherson criticised the light sentence: 

“No one should be misled by this court result. In most cases like this - drink drive offences coupled with such dangerous driving - result in a prison sentence and rightly so.

“Such an extreme disregard for public safety should be dealt with in the strongest way possible and Wiltshire Police must continue to have zero tolerance when it comes to this type of behaviour.

“The court must have considered there to be very significant mitigation in deciding not to impose the custodial sentence in this case.” 

At the time of the incident, Duty Inspector Rachel Hardy said: “The officers involved in this incident made some fast time decisions to bring the vehicle to a stop and prevent a serious, and potentially fatal, collision from occurring with members of the public. 


“The driver of this vehicle put himself, his passenger, and other road users lives in grave danger. It is extremely fortunate that no one was injured during this incident. "