Man gets 14 months for wrong-way drive on highway

BEAN, England, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- A British man who drove in the wrong direction for 9 miles on a busy highway before crashing was sentenced to 14 months imprisonment.

Mitchell Locke, 20, who was caught on video driving the wrong way on the M25 and A2 near the county of Kent, England, was sentenced to 14 months in a young offenders' institution and told he would need to pass an extended road test regain his driving privileges.

The court heard Locke had been smoking marijuana and believed he was being chased before crashing into another vehicle near the town of Bean. The driver of the other car was treated for whiplash and cracked ribs while her 2-year-old son, who was in the back seat, was not injured.

"It is an absolute miracle that no-one was killed or seriously injured by you during the course of this passage of dangerous driving," Judge Philip Statman said.