Nearly 1,000 wrong-way driver incidents reported on Britain’s motorways in last year
By MATT DAVIS
Updated: 23:13, 14 March 2026
Nearly 1,000 wrong-way driver incidents have been reported on England's motorways in the past year, shocking figures show.
Amounting to about 20 every week, the alarming toll includes motorists entering slip roads the wrong way, reversing on the hard shoulder and even attempting dangerous U-turns.
Most are accidental, but some drivers have deliberately gone the wrong way down a motorway. Many may have been following incorrect sat-nav directions.
National Highways logged 922 reports of oncoming vehicles last year on the English motorway network. There were 3,607 reports between 2022 and 2025.
The M1 was the worst motorway over the four-year period, with 480 incidents recorded.
Next came the M6 with 417, followed by the M25 with 333.
The cases were registered by National Highways operational centres after reports from police, traffic officers or the public.
It comes after an inquest last year heard how former RAF pilot Richard Woods, 40, deliberately took his own life and killed four others in a head-on crash on the M6 in Cumbria.
The M1 topped the list as the UK's most incident-prone motorway over the last four years, racking up 480 recorded events. It was followed by the M6 with 417 incidents and the M25 with 333
The hearing was told he was over the alcohol limit and pulled over on to the hard shoulder before executing a sudden U-turn to head south on the northbound carriageway.
He narrowly missed one car before smashing into a Toyota driven by Jaroslaw Rossa, 42, from Glasgow, who died along with his children, Filip, 15, and Dominic, seven.
His partner, Jade McEnroe, 33, was also killed.
And Barancan Nurcin, 23, was jailed for 18 years in 2024 after he caused a head-on crash by driving the wrong way around the M25 in a bid to evade the police in a stolen van.
The crash killed his passenger Fahad Dek, 23, as well as Zoe Hawes, 36, who was travelling in the vehicle he hit.
Zoe's husband, Wayne, and those in another car were seriously injured.
Jack Cousens, of the AA, said: 'The number of people driving the wrong way on the motorway[1] is alarming and can be catastrophic should the worst happen.
'While numerous incidents are due to criminals trying to evade arrest, in many cases people are misinterpreting the directions on their sat-navs and making dangerous decisions.'
Simon Williams, of the RAC, added: 'More has to be done to prevent this nightmare scenario, whether that's clearer signage or a technological solution, as these figures show what we have currently isn't clear enough.'
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References
- ^ driving the wrong way on the motorway (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Save on services and MOTs - and keep track of your car's documents (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ This is Money Motoring Club (motoringclub.thisismoney.co.uk)
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