I had just joined the motorway and driving up behind a lorry when I saw it swerving all over the place. Thought the driver might be drunk or having a medical emergency, so I phoned 999. Turns out, he was hammered—three times over the limit. Drinking vodka whilst driving will do that to you! He actually tried to outrun the police and got surprisingly far to be fair.

Here’s the crazy part. Next day, I get a call from the Chief Super thanking me. The guy had been weaving down the M6 for over 100 miles, and not a single other driver had reported it! He was only two hours into an eight-hour journey.

Here’s a vid I caught: https://imgur.com/pyDtCM1

Hope he gets the help he needs. Appreciate this isn’t exactly light-hearted, but thought it was worth a PSA—don’t assume someone else will call it in!

by thespiceismight

37 comments

  1. Thank you for doing the right thing. Drunk drivers are a menace.

  2. Usually I wouldn’t comment on these but looking at that video – you’ve prevented a disaster happening by phoning it in.

    Where was it & was he driving slower than he should as well? Looks like it in the video but hard to tell

  3. Drunk drivers should get attempted murder charges for everyone they pass and if you drive for your job like this double.

  5. I was going to go past a lorry like this (in a lorry myself) and stayed back it was constantly in my lane. I’d be way too distracted to be able to film it.

  6. Well done you. That’s probably saved lives, or expensive insurance claims at a minimum.

    I’ve called the non-emergency line for some strange stuff on the roads before – wild horses loose running down the road, and a cyclist on the hard shoulder of the M25. Once had fly-tipping that blocked the center of a road on the crest of a hill so you could barely tell before you had to swerve.

    The non-emergency police line takes AGES to answer though.

  7. This is why I hate the idea of smart motorways. If you’re Broke down in the left hand lane, it only takes a trucker who’s distracted on the phone or drunk to slam into you and kill you

  8. Well done, absolutely no excuse for drink driving, even more so if that’s your profession, you should know better.

  9. I too hope he gets the help, and prosecution, he deserves.

    Well done OP, you probably saved a life.

  12. Good job, it’s not easy being the one to make the call on anything. It’s so easy to assume someone else will.

    What an asshole though. It’s bad enough in a regular car but in a truck that size he could have SO EASILY taken someone else’s life.

    This might be a dumb question but how did you call 999 while driving? Just speakerphone? I don’t drive so this is purely a curiosity question.

  13. Ugh what a total prick! Definitely did the right thing. I’m not an experienced driver on motorways at all and this makes it even more scary.

  14. Driving behind such an erratically moving vehicle must have been horrendously alarming! Well done OP for calling it in. I am a recovering alcoholic myself but I have absolutely no sympathy for drunk drivers. Everything else I can understand, but getting behind the wheel whilst hammered and endangering other people’s lives? Fuck that.

  15. If you’re drinking vodka whilst driving, you’ve gone down a dark hole. The guy needs help, I hope they get it. No one hurt thanks to op, good job 👍

  16. Folk like to shit on the police, but in all the times I’ve needed them, or reported stuff to them, they have been amazing. Even with post incident follow ups in some cases.

  17. You weren’t kidding about the swerving, jeez!

    It was like he was trying to warm his tyres on an F1 parade lap

  18. Well done OP, there’s a real chance you prevented a tragic headline making the news.

  19. A couple of years ago my wife was driving home from work and coming towards her suddenly was a lorry with its trailer completely smashed in, dragging the walls and roof of it behind it, smashing up the road surface and mounting the pavement, nearly wiping out people taking kids home from school.

    Turns out the guy was steaming drunk, drove into a low bridge, didn’t even notice and carried on driving til the police stopped him.

    https://www.theweekin.co.uk/news/104311/

    This arsehole could’ve killed children doing this. Utterly reprehensible

  20. Good on you. And also good of you to say you hope he gets the help he needs.

  21. I’ve done this before with a car that was swerving all over the place in front of me, hit the curb a couple times etc. Followed them for another couple miles with police en route and they finally stopped, so I got out to see if they were ok (possible medical issues I thought same as you), it turned out to be an 80+ year old with a fold out map taking over half the car, he was lost and trying to find where he was.

    He couldn’t understand why I’d phoned the police on him, he was driving on a winding road doing 50mph where locals barely reach 45, was constantly veering into the opposite side of the road and had a couple near misses with oncoming traffic.

  22. I don’t get how anybody could decide to drink and drive, especially with a lorry. That’s mental!

  23. Genuinely thank YOU!

    Should think about posting in r/PoliceUK

    Glad you got a call back to update you too, that’s a touch.

  24. >He actually tried to outrun the police and got surprisingly far to be fair.

    Have you tried stopping a 10 ton truck in a Vauxhall Astra? If he doesn’t voluntarily stop, it’s pretty difficult to force him to.

    Well done though, mate. I hope that he had only recently just started swerving all over the road and that’s why no one else reported it, but regardless, you’ve prevented a potential disaster there.

  25. “I wasn’t drunk officer, I just like to play a game of weaving through the lines”

    Or

    “I wasn’t drunk officer, I was warming the tyres up”

    Can anyone think of any excuses the driver could have made?

  26. Thank you. There’s drivers that pass me at the crossing every day and I sometimes wonder if they’ve been drinking (it’s really hard to tell because my town seems to magically spawn bad drivers, and they can’t all be drunk, I don’t think..).

    I know some of them are smoking weed, because they usually have their windows open. Although I can often still smell it with car windows closed, and the driver hotboxing.

    So, drink/drug drivers: Hit me while off your face on drink or drugs and I’ll scrape myself off the road to personally come and ram my stop sign in an orifice. Circle first. Don’t care if I’ve got a bone sticking out, I will be running on adrenaline. Hit a child, and you’d better pray that I get to you before some of the parents. I’d let you survive long enough to be arrested, the parents would lynch you.

  27. >He actually tried to outrun the police and got surprisingly far

    Not surprised, with the way he pre-warmed his tyres.

  28. Good on you for calling it in. Surprised you got a call back from the Supt. tbh.

  29. I did this once and the operator said maybe he’s got a flat tire and ended the call. That was that. 

  30. > Hope he gets the help he needs.

    I appreciate the sentiment, but personally I hope he loses his licence with a significant-length ban and stringent re-test.

    Once he’s safely off the road, then I hope that he manages to get some help, but bear in mind that he knowing drank spirits and then drove an HGV. Tarnished soul or not, this is a cunt’s trick and he could easily have killed someone.

  31. Thanks for calling this in. Idiots like this scare the shit out of me, particularly as 99% of the time I have my kiddos in the car with me.

  32. Thanks mate, everyone appreciates this. Even the driver when they show him this I bet.

  33. Genuinely I think there should be a threshold for drunk driving where you can never drive again if you get caught. This person should never, ever be behind the wheel of a car or lorry again.

  36. You probably don’t realise it OP but you’ve saved someone or many someone’s lives by reporting this. Thank you for doing this.

  37. Jesus that’s terrifying. Thanks for phoning in OP – on behalf of anyone who was driving down the same stretch of M6 as him, and their friends / family.

    May I ask – and this is with absolutely no judgment because what you did was definitely a net safety gain – how did you go about capturing the video? I don’t think for a moment you’re holding your phone camera because it’s clearly far too steady for that. And did the police make any comment on you having used your phone to do the recording?

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