The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Car in M90 crash may have been going wrong way
Police probe reports vehicle turned into oncoming traffic
Police in Perthshire are investigating reports a five-car motorway crash was caused by a man driving in the wrong direction.
Emergency services rushed to the incident on the M90 at Bridge of Earn yesterday afternoon.
Officers believe the pile-up, which left one person in hospital, may have been caused by a car turning the wrong way into oncoming traffic, before colliding with four other vehicles. One witness said he saw a car joining the motorway in the wrong direction, narrowly missing his own vehicle.
Wattie Garland, 51, said: “I was overtaking a lorry and I saw a car – I’m not sure what type – with a male driver in it and he was just coming the wrong way down towards the motorway.
“A lorry behind me swerved out and I just saw dust and cars in the hard shoulder in my mirror. I think the car might have gone into the side of the lorry.”
A five-vehicle crash on a busy Perthshire motorway saw one person rushed to hospital when a car collided with four other vehicles yesterday afternoon.
Police believe the driver of the car may have been driving the wrong way down the M90 near Bridge of Earn when it hit the four other vehicles, including an HGV lorry, at around 2pm.
A spokesperson for Police Scotland said they were “pursuing a line of inquiry” that the driver of the vehicle had turned the wrong way on to the motorway after exiting a slip road.
Paramedics and firefighters also worked the scene of the crash between junctions nine and 10, with one person having to be cut from their car.
A spokesperson for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said: “We had to remove one person from one of the vehicles but the rest managed to get out themselves.”
An eyewitness to the incident described the terrifying moment he saw the car turn into oncoming traffic – narrowly missing his own vehicle by a few feet.
Driver Wattie Garland, 51, said: “I was coming up from Dunfermline towards Perth and I saw cars braking in front of me on the slip road.
“I was overtaking a lorry and I saw a car – I’m not sure what type – with a male driver in it and he was just coming the wrong way down towards the motorway.
“A lorry behind me swerved out and I just saw dust and cars in the hard shoulder in my mirror.
“I think the car might have gone into the side of the lorry.”
He added: “He was going about 30-40mph but the guy’s face was total fear.
“He’d obviously realised he’d made a mistake, rather than anything deliberate.
“I’m just in a bit of shock because it was so close to me being involved in it. “I just hope everyone is OK.” Mr Garland is a trained first-aider and said he is frustrated he could not help at the scene.
He said: “There was no way I could stop because I was already past it.”
Mr Garland, who lives in St Madoes, said conditions were good and there was no obvious reason why the driver was heading the wrong way.
The northbound lane of the motorway was closed for nearly two hours following the collision, causing long traffic queues on both the M90 and through Bridge of Earn where diversions were put in place.