A pensioner who drove down a motorway in the wrong direction, causing drivers to swerve to get out of his way, was lucky not to have caused catastrophic consequences, a court has heard.
James Miller, 78, has been hit with a lifetime ban following the incident in April.
As his car headed south on the northbound carriageway of the M77 after travelling down the wrong on-ramp, one driver had to take evasive action to avoid a head-on collision and another female driver lost control as her car fishtailed then careered off the carriageway, landing on the other side of the barrier.
Paisley Sheriff Court heard how despite the mayhem caused, Miller, who was more than double the legal drink-drive limit, continued on his way, until he stopped on the hard shoulder close to junction 4 at Newton Mearns.
No one was injured.
Depute-fiscal Rebecca Hoskins said that the car which crashed over the barrier sustained major damage but the driver escaped unhurt.
When Miller was eventually traced and breath-tested, the results showed a reading of 82 microgrammes of alcohol. The legal limit is 35.
The court was told that Miller had driven from Ayr to have lunch with his brother at a bowling club in Thornliebank, on the south side of Glasgow and was unsure how much alcohol he had consumed.
He felt that he was fit to drive but got confused as he searched for the motorway and headed on to the carriageway down the off-ramp.
Inquiries with his GP confirmed he was not suffering from any ageing difficulties but the death of his wife 18 months ago, after 52 years of marriage, had impacted on him very hard.
Miller admitted driving while over the legal alcohol limit and driving dangerously on April 19.
His lawyer said that there had been no-one injured due mainly to the fast reaction of the other drivers and because his client had been travelling at a reasonably slow speed.
"He intends never to drive again," said the lawyer. "This has been a wholly unpleasant experience and has served as a considerable wake-up call."
Sheriff Richard Clark told Miller: "I trust that you appreciate the seriousness of the potential consequences of your actions, which are unimaginable. It is extremely fortunate that no-one was injured as this could have been catastrophic."
Imposing a life ban, the Sheriff added: "What is important here is that you do not drive a car again."
Miller, of Braehead Crescent, Ayr, was fined £1560 after reductions due to the fact that he had pleaded guilty at an early stage.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article