Three dead after car towing caravan drives wrong way down M40

Three people were killed when a car towing a caravan was driven in the wrong direction on a busy motorway for several minutes.

The Subaru Forester SUV, which is believed to have had foreign plates, sped into oncoming traffic in the fast lane of the northbound carriageway of the M40, forcing other vehicles to swerve out of its way.

It crashed into two other cars - a Ford Mondeo and a Ford Focus - near Junction 6 in Lewknor, Oxfordshire, shortly before 4pm on Monday.

The driver and a passenger in the Forester, believed to be a couple in their 80s, and the driver of the Mondeo, a man in his 30s, died.

The Forester is thought to have joined the M40 at Junction 7, which is around six miles north of the crash site or Junction 8, which is 8.5 miles north.

Thames Valley Police said it began receiving reports of a vehicle travelling in the wrong direction “a few minutes” before the crash.

The force issued a public appeal for dashcam footage of the incident.

Colin Dingwall, a West Oxfordshire councillor who witnessed the moments before the crash, told the Oxford Mail: “I’ve seen a lot of things in my 50 years on the road, but never a caravan coming the wrong way up the M40.

“Luckily I and the cars near me managed to pull into the middle lane and get out of the way.

“He must have been going about 60mph. It was a car with foreign plates pulling a caravan. It didn’t look to be slowing down.

“I had about two seconds to react.”

A number of others who witnessed the Forester being driven in the wrong direction described their panic as they saw the Forester careering towards them.

Sonia Thomson, from Staffordshire, said the car was "going so fast it was almost past me in the blink of an eye".

The crash happened shortly after her encounter with the car.

"Someone must have been looking after me because 10-20 seconds later and that could have been me," she said.

Liz Hindmarsh wrote on Twitter: "My husband had to swerve into the middle lane otherwise he'd have been hit."

And Oliver Hayes wrote: "We also had to swerve, seemed at least 70mph driving head on in our lane at junction 8... did not look accidental.

"Called the police who said they'd had multiple calls by that time. Scary stuff hope no fatalities but looked inevitable the way they were driving."

Post mortem examinations are to be carried out on the three bodies which were taken to hospital mortuaries and the Buckinghamshire coroner is expected to open and adjourn inquests later in the week.