Pensioner drove the wrong way along fast lane of M62

A DISABLED pensioner drove the wrong way down the fast lane of a motorway at 20mph, a court was told yesterday.

Harry Taylor, 68, did a U-turn on the westbound carriageway of the M62 after realising that he had missed the exit for Wakefield 20 miles back, Michael Pell, for the prosection, said at Huddersfield magistrates' court.

Mr Pell told the court that police patrol cars alerted to the danger warned other drivers to keep out of the way before intercepting Taylor's Ford Fiesta and escorting him off the motorway. Miraculously there had not been a crash. Taylor, a former sailor who walks with a stick as the result of injuries sustained in an air raid in 1942, told the police: 'I waited until it was clear and turned round. Then I just pulled into the side and kept going.'

Taylor pleaded guilty to careless driving and was fined pounds 500 with pounds 20 costs, banned from driving for 12 months and ordered to take a test before driving again.