A pensioner has been arrested after 19 hours behind the wheel when she was spotted driving in the fast lane of the motorway travelling in the wrong direction.
Maureen Darvell, 83, had set off from her home in Ashford, Kent, at 9am on September 8 last year on her way to Bristol for a relative's wedding.The 175-mile trip should have taken her around three hours, but the pensioner got confused on the M25 and ended up heading towards Bournemouth on the south coast.Folkestone JPs heard last week how the confused pensioner realised her mistake as she approached Bournemouth, more than 110 miles from where she set off, and managed to turn around.But rather than heading north west towards Bristol, the pensioner ended up heading north east again - back to where she came from.
The OAP told the court she 'started getting tired' and decided to pull over in her 1997 Nissan Micra when she reached Popham Services on the A303 at Micheldever in Hampshire - around 60 miles north east of Bournemouth.She told the court 'she was tired and needed a cup of coffee' and had 'no idea' how long she had been driving - although she was still around 100 miles from Bristol.When she left the the service station - at around 3.30am the next day, September 9 - after driving for nearly 19 hours - she managed to drive back down the same carriageway she had arrived on - driving straight into oncoming traffic.She whizzed past cars in the fast lane before seeing a turn off for the M3 and turning onto the motorway - heading north on the southbound carriageway for around seven miles before being stopped.
Victoria Urmossy, defending, told the court: "Mrs Darvell left her home in Kent at 9am and took the wrong turning off of the M25 and became lost."When she got to Bournemouth she knew she had taken a wrong turn and tried to find her way back."She stopped at the service station and she is still not sure what time she left - but she was extremely tired."On the dual carriageway she realised that she was going the wrong way so she moved to the lane alongside the central reservation trying to find a gap."She could see traffic on the other carriageway going the way she wanted to go so she stayed in the outside lane looking for a break in the central reservation crash barrier so she could cross over."
Neil Sweeney, prosecuting, said police received 'lots of phone calls from drivers' about the slow moving Micra in the overtaking lane.He told the court: "Mrs Darvell continued along the A303 and then continued along the slip road onto the M3 travelling north on the southbound carriageway."She was stopped by police at junction 6 for Basingstoke at 3.50am around seven miles from where she had set out."When she was stopped, she confirmed she knew she had been travelling the wrong way."She was asked why she had not turned around and she replied: 'Because I did not want to go that way'."It was then she explained to police she was travelling to Bristol. It was just before four in the morning, she had set out from Ashford the previous day."
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