A DRIVER has spoken of his ‘absolute horror’ when he realised a car was speeding towards him the wrong way down a motorway.

Eden senior road policing officer David Kerry was driving north on the M6 towards Carlisle when he confronted a car travelling down the fast lane, in the opposite direction.

“I was absolutely horrified,” said Mr Kerry. “I couldn’t believe it, you never except to see these things actually happen to you."

He had noticed signs warning him to slow down due to high winds at around 6pm on Monday night.

But when the warning lights indicated 20mph he suddenly realised something was seriously wrong.

“Signs never go that low on a motorway,” said Mr Kerry. “I moved across to the first lane and then I saw a black car going around 60mph the wrong way in the third lane next to the crash barrier.”

He said his passenger could see an elderly man in the car which police said had joined the motorway at junction 40 at Penrith. The car travelled six miles before it was stopped.

“It’s beyond belief that he managed to travel down the slip road, which always has cars on, and then made it across two live lanes of traffic,” said Mr Kerry.

Mr Kerry added that he saw two police cars travelling in the other direction towards the Ford Focus at speeds of at least 130mph.

“I’ll never know how they did it but they managed to get the man to move over to the hard shoulder and into safety," said Mr Kerry.

An 87-year-old man from Lochaber was arrested. Police say they released the man without charge but have reported him to the DVLA.