Wrong-way death crash horror on M40
3 killed as drivers swerve to avoid foreign car towing caravan at 70mph
TERRIFIED motorists were forced to swerve off the road as a car towing a caravan hurtled towards them at 70mph the wrong way down a motorway before causing a crash which killed three.
Dashcam footage shows cars driving on to the central reservation at the last second as the 4x4 weaved along the fast lane of the M40.
Witnesses described the Subaru Forester – being driven by an elderly couple with foreign number plates – showing no signs of slowing as it left chaos in its wake. Tragically, minutes later the Subaru crashed into a Ford Mondeo and a Ford Focus.
The driver and the passenger of the 4x4, both in their 80s, died – as did the driver of the Mondeo, a man in his 30s.
Monday afternoon’s crash on the northbound carriageway of the motorway near Lewknor in Oxfordshire, caused 14-mile tailbacks and closed the road overnight.
It is not clear when the Subaru joined the motorway but it is believed to have travelled between junctions seven and six, a distance of five miles. It is thought the driver may have become lost or confused on unfamiliar roads.
Sonia Thomson, from Staffordshire, was driving in the fast lane when she realised the car ‘was just heading towards me’.
The British Airways cabin crew worker said the car was going so fast ‘it was past me in the blink of an eye’. She said the crash came soon afterwards, adding: ‘Ten to 20 seconds later and that could have been me.’
Colin Dingwall, a local councillor, said: ‘It was a car with foreign plates pulling a caravan. It didn’t
look to be slowing down. I had two seconds to react.’
Oliver Hayes said the car ‘seemed to be doing at least 70mph head-on in our lane’. He added: ‘I called the police who said they’d had multiple calls by that time.’ Police said they received reports of a car driving the wrong way shortly before 4pm but the crash happened before officers could intercept it.
The motorway was closed in both directions in the aftermath of the crash and the northbound carriageway not reopened until 7am yesterday.
Hours later another serious crash between junction 8 and 8a closed the road again and left a woman fighting for her life last night.