Elderly man drives in the fast lane of M60 in the WRONG direction for five miles

An elderly man drove around the fast lane of the M60 for five miles in the wrong direction before a head on collision brought him to a halt at Junction 8 near Carrington.

Scores of people contacted traffic police or took to Twitter as the man in his eighties joined the M60 near Cheadle at junction 3 and made his way around the motorway until Carrington, when there was a  collision  involving two other vehicles.

The pensioner, who was driving a red Ford Fiesta, was taken to Salford Royal hospital with minor injuries. No one else is said to have been seriously hurt in the incident which  happened at 6 pm yesterday evening, in the middle of Bank Holiday traffic.

Nathan Fearn, an electrician, was on his way to an emergency Bank Holiday call out when he saw the car heading towards the three lanes of traffic. He said: “I had just overtaken someone and I moved back into the middle lane. About 30 to 40 seconds later I saw a elderly man with a old fashioned coat and I think with a cap on, driving towards me in the far right lane I had just moved from.

“He was driving a red Ford Fiesta.  I beeped my horn to warn other drivers and phoned the police. They told me others had phoned in from further down the M60 towards Stockport.”

A spokesman for Greater Manchester police said: “He was clearly very confused. Thankfully it ended in a low key manner given the amount of calls we had.”