A MOTORIST has described the moments before a head-on crash when he realised that another car was driving directly towards him on the M6 Motorway.

Incredibly, both that driver and the motorist who was responsible for the terrifying crash escaped serious injury.

At Carlisle’s Rickergate Magistrates court, the driver who caused the dramatic accident - 30-year-old Usman Hussain – admitted dangerous driving and offences of drink and drug driving.

He was made the subject of an interim driving ban.

Prosecutor Peter Kelly described how motorist Peter Frame was driving on the northbound M6 near Shap at 3.30pm on August 27 last year, doing a speed of about 60mph.

The road was dry, and the traffic light to moderate.

He said he was suddenly confronted by the sight of a VW Golf driving the wrong way on the motorway and directly towards him.

“It was travelling at 60mph to 70mph,” he said.

“It happened so quickly I had no time to react. The vehicle crashed into mine head on, causing significant damage to my car.” Mr Frame saw the defendant get out of his car, apparently uninjured.

Though he was not seriously hurt in the crash, Mr Frame described in a statement the lasting impact of what happened in the weeks afterwards.

As well as suffering a chipped tooth, he was left suffering pain in his head, chest, neck and shoulders; and he had been forced to stop playing football and golf – both activities he had previously enjoyed with his friends.

He was also unable to play five-a-side football, which he normally did three times a week. He added: “I’ve also had flashbacks and a loss of sleep, and a loss of self-confidence as a direct result of the collision.

“And I’ve physiotherapy sessions.”

Another motorist, a woman, was travelling southwards on the M6 when she witnessed the accident. “The collision was inevitable,” she said.

At the time of the accident, the defendant had just over three times the legal limit for the cocaine breakdown product benzoylecgonine in his system, and one and a half times the limit for alcohol.

When he was interviewed, after he was checked over at Carlisle’s Cumberland Infirmary, Hussain was cooperative, telling police officers that he had effectively made a mistake. “I think I turned the wrong way and ended up on the wrong side," he said. “It’s all a bit of a blank.”

He said his last drink had been at 4am the previous day. The court was told that Hussain was a man of previous good character.

Nigel Beeson, for the defendant, who gave his address as Denby Street, Bradford, said he could not argue against the court’s likely decision to impose and interim driving ban.

Magistrates ordered background reports, saying that their powers of sentence were not sufficient. They imposed an interim driving ban and sent the case to the crown court for a hearing on May 23.

Hussain was granted bail.