Crossover Traffic Cops

When things go wrong on the motorway, life or death is in the

lap of the gods. This guy here, managed to stagger out of the

vehicle of his own accord. When they go wrong on an estate in Luton.

Why are you driving if you can't see? There's more to things than

meet the eye. But when teenage criminals take the law into their

own hands. You're nicked, chum, for burglary! They're only going down a

In Britain, motorways make up just 1% of all the roads, yet they carry

The daddy of them all, the M1, has been keeping traffic cops in

Bedfordshire busy day and night for half a century now. 'Over the years

the traffic 'on that road has increased dramatically' and

consequently with all that traffic, sometimes things go wrong which we

have to deal with. Traffic cops are specialists when it comes to

dealing with accidents and speeding motorists on the motorway, but

they're also always on high alert for criminals using it as an escape

route. 'Yeah, I can confirm 99 are en route.' It's gone two in the

morning and there's been a report of a burglary in Luton.

suspected burglars are heading for the M1. Vehicle pursuit in Luton,

not sure of the details of the vehicle at the moment. It's on the

perimeter of Luton up near the airport. PC Craig Baker and his

sergeant Tony Richardson are already on the M1 and preparing to

head off the vehicle. Where, where is it now? Right, go up toward

junction 10. 10? OK. Another traffic cop has beaten them to the

chase and is behind the getaway car. Ah, Keith's got the follow. He's

got it? Yeah, he's got it. We got a traffic unit behind it at the

moment - Keith. We probably will pick it up coming down, we'll try

and get it on the motorway and then depending what way we go we can

look at putting some pursuit tactics into place. The traffic

cops are specially trained in pursuit management tactics, PMT,

which they will employ to surround the car on the motorway and force

it to a halt. In case that plan doesn't come off the police

helicopter with its night vision camera has been called for. 150

we're going to hold at 10 and if you get to us, Keith, we're going

to try and push it on junction 10 southbound. 'The idea of keeping

the vehicle on the motorway is, it's a much' more sterile area that

we can deal with. Have we got authority? Yep. Here it comes... Is

it coming this way? No, towards Luton. 'Stand by, we're London Road

towards Luton.' London Road now. But something has gone wrong.

'Unfortunately, instead of coming my direction, 'it decided to turn

towards Luton.' It's just what the cops didn't want. 'It was the worst

route he could take, towards the town centre. 'That's the one place

you want to try and keep it out of cos at that time of night, 'that's

where you're likely to have pedestrians, in a town centre.'

Luckily help's arrived in the shape of the chopper overhead. The crew

have got the thieves on their thermal imaging camera, with a

patrol car of PC Keith Nicholson and PC Chris Naughton right on

their tail. 'They are now passing the police station, 'he didn't want

to stop there.' They're not in any hurry to pull over but unlike some

pursuits, this isn't particularly high-octane, high-risk stuff and

the police are not having any difficulty following them. 'Towards

Telford Way where he's indicating left.' For some reason he just

wanted to tell us where he was going which is uncommon so it was

fairly easy to follow him. And it's been fairly easy for Tony and Craig,

call sign 150, to catch up to what is now a convoy. 'We don't want to

be chasing it forever and ever 'cos the longer the chase goes on the

more likelihood 'there is of someone getting injured, car

crashing or something going wrong.' 150 ARV can you just be aware we

are going to come alongside you in a minute. And 150 we've got a rear

Panda, can the Panda break off as soon as, please. Obviously look for

a decamp but not be directly involved please. We're second in

the convoy. The plan is still to try and box the car in, but it's a

very risky manoeuvre, especially not on the motorway. Ask Keith if

he wants to take over as marked car. 150 to 298, Keith do you want us to

take over as a marked police vehicle? 'Approaching the

roundabout. It's a dual-end. Stand by. Take it afterwards.' Yeah,

we'll take it after the roundabout, copy. The sarge is taking over the

pursuit, it's a safer option than having an unmarked police car

leading the way. 'Tony came along from behind and he's the pursuit

commander so he took over. 'He was in a marked vehicle and then we

just followed, from there.' Chris has been a bobby on the beat for

five years but has only just joined Traffic. Being on a pursuit so soon

is a real bonus. It's not a common thing nowadays, unless it's a high-

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 76 seconds

powered car and they're trying to Pull back, pull back, Keith. OK,

get ready. OK, we've got two occupants. Chris isn't the only one

who's new to all this. They were just two young kids. Really young,

I think he was 15 to 17 years old, he didn't even have a licence.

years ago Chris made more arrests than any other officer in

Bedfordshire. Now he's on the Traffic Department his number of

arrests are lower but his excitement is higher. Well, that's

my first follow in five years so... ..I think that's the best time I've

ever had in a traffic car. They're going to get a Divisional to get

him back. The supervisor's coming down for that. All incidents

involving police cars have to be investigated and if there is any

damage a supervisor will have to be called in and a report filed. But

Tony's confident he won't be getting in any trouble. What way

you going? I was expecting a little bit of damage 'because of the way

they were driving, and if your bringing' a vehicle to a stop like

that you expect a little bit of damage. But extraordinarily there

isn't any... ..apart from a little scratch and a bent mirror. T-cut

minus mirror. See, there you go. T- cut. Done. Tony has now got to be

breathalysed. Every person that we deal with, whether it's police

officers, ambulance, fire, members of the public, everyone involved in

a crash, collision will be breathalysed and that's no

different for me. Put your lips around the tube and blow

continuously until I tell you to stop. Tony's practically out of

gas... ..and air. Zero. Thank you. But he hasn't been drinking. And he

wants to retire soon. He won't go! I tell you what I didn't have a

cool head when I looked over and realised you hadn't filled the poxy

thing up. We're driving down, 26 miles to run. Who says It's my

fault I didn't fill it up? Now it is time for Tony to get tanked up..

Slicing through the heart of Bedfordshire is the busiest stretch

of the whole of the M1. 30 miles of it. Nearly all affected by years of

carriage-widening roadworks. With the roadworks at a 50mph speed

limit so, when things do go wrong they're a lot slower, and therefore

not as many people get hurt and injured, but there's some nasty,

nasty incidents occur. In a small room at Toddington Service Station,

CCTV is being monitored around the clock should any nasty incidents

And this evening, something very A major disaster has struck. A

forty-tonne truck has careered over the central reservation smashing

into the busy traffic travelling in Tony and Craig are rushing to the

scene. They need to get there fast. En route obviously to the motorway.

Just under the Toddington Services report of lorry gone over central

reservation. We've got a unit at the scene at the moment. As far as

casualties, we've got one person at least, and that person is currently

unconscious. They call these crossovers, the very worst kind of

accident on a motorway. If we have a crossover, and thank goodness

they're pretty rare, all I can think of is the worst. Invariably

one of those vehicles, the one crossing over will be a heavy

because, you know, they're the ones that can actually get through the

barriers. 'On every single one of those occasions there will be

carnage 'and it's only a matter of luck 'whether there's going to be

serious injury but most probably death.' Fortunately, the rush

hour's over and getting to the motorway has been straightforward.

The main issue on a major crash like that is making sure that

access is available to the emergency services. So if you need

any more ambulances or fire engines that they're not stuck in traffic.

But access, all of a sudden, is a problem. People are trying to

escape being trapped on the motorway by turning back up the

slip road. What don't help is when you've got people down here doing

u-turns and trying to come back up. Once we've got an agreement we can

do it safely, it's fine, but you got people turning around already.

What they forget is interference with the emergency services coming.

If we've got fire engines coming down it then hinders everything

getting here. But you can see now how quick the carnage... You've got

the whole motorway stopped. 'All three lanes were blocked. Lane

three of the other carriage way was blocked and there was carnage.'

150,000 vehicles a day use this part of the M1, with it at a

standstill the whole region could grind to a halt and literally

millions could be effected. -- affected. But Tony's main concern

is for the people involved in the smash and those helping them.

well not so nice. 'When we first get there it is most definitely the

fire service and ambulance's job 'and we stay out the way and make

it as easy as it can be for those.' Against all the odds, no-one has

been killed. Somehow, the driver of this car a VW Passat has survived

being hit head-on by the out-of- control lorry. And unbelievably, he

isn't badly hurt. The driver of the lorry is being treated in the

ambulance but it's not clear what exactly his injuries are. This guy

here, managed to stagger out of the vehicle of his own accord where

he's lost consciousness just down there. He was unconscious,

breathing at the time... 'The driver of the wagon pretty much

collapsed' at the roadside. The paramedics suspected that he had

spine, pelvis, neck injuries so they were obviously very concerned

about him. 'When we got there, 'Andy went to the lorry driver,' I

went straight to the Passat expecting the driver to be in a

mess and he had a bump on his wrist and it's almost one of those things

where you can't believe it's happening to you. You're looking

around, saying this can't be here, this really can't be here. We just

expected there'd be bodies everywhere. The man's injuries are

negligible but he's off to hospital anyway. 'Just looking at the damage

to the Passat, I was amazed that anyone could walk out of it.' I

know the guy was carried away on a spinal board but as I understand it,

that was purely a precautionary measure and he had virtually no

injuries at all afterwards. thing has saved him. He was wearing

his seat belt, if you look you can see it's still in the same position,

it's not retracted. So he definitely had his belt on. Can you

imagine if he weren't wearing that? I'd be knocking on somebody's door

about now. Looking around, it can be seen that the dividing barriers

were simply flattened by the lorry. For the rest of the lucky survivors,

it'll be a moment they will never, ever forget. All I could see was he

was in the middle lane, as he should be, and all of a sudden he

reared off and then he just took off, and it was like he flew

through the air. It's, it's a really frightening thing... I think

I'll be seeing it for a long time, I'm going to cry now. So yeah,

it's...scary. I dread to think what they were thinking when it was

coming towards them... And knowing that they were going to hit it

head-on and there was absolutely nothing they could do about it.

traffic all going along here, I suppose is doing about 50mph cos I

think it's in an average speed camera zone. So probably if people

were going faster it would have been worse so you had time to, you

know, just slow down. We had spoken to a few witnesses and once the

initial shock of everything had calmed down for people it became

obvious that there was a fault, probably either with the driver of

the lorry or maybe with the lorry itself. Although no-one's died, the

fact that it could so easily have been a catastrophe means the

southbound carriageway is going to remain closed for quite some time

while investigators find out exactly what went wrong. After

having come across the central reservation, he hit this, the

Passat head-on, and ended up in lane one and stopped and then after

a few seconds moved over to the hard shoulder and apparently, after

a few seconds he got out and then collapsed. There was a suggestion

that he was taken ill at the wheel. If there is a potential for a fatal

or a life-changing, we will pull out all the stops to investigate.

Eventually, when we've made room we're going to spin all of this

around... Superb, OK. I'll take that from you. Yeah, yeah, that's

cool. 'It's a huge decision, when you think about it, to close off a

main arterial route' like the M1 motorway to do your investigation.

It's a big decision to take. Despite the cost, the motorway will

remain closed until the investigation's complete. When

they're not chasing car thieves or picking up the pieces after bad

crashes the traffic cops' stock in trade is enforcing motoring laws.

Even coming to the end of a long shift, PC Shona Gillen is more

eager than most to catch illegal motorists. It can be hectic

sometimes as she's, she buzzes like a bee and she's always after

everything. 'But, she, you know, she gets results, so it's good.'

just think that it's come from years of experience.' It's eleven

years of me stopping vehicles and stopping people, you generally get

this feel and you go with your gut instinct. Coming up to some traffic

lights on the outskirts of Luton, Shona's got that feeling about a

car going past the other way. This car here that's just gone past, I

should come out and patrol round here more often, you know? 'As the

driver came round the corner,' he had this kind of reddish complexion

on his face and just didn't look quite right and initially I thought

he was a drink driver. Under The Road Traffic Act, Shona can stop

and request any driver to produce their documents. 'Something just

clicked inside me, I thought that car needs stopping.' He's done a

left. And there's no time to waste. He's pulling over. The car's

pulling over but suspiciously, two passengers have got out rather

promptly. 'They didn't run away but they, it was like they didn't want

to be 'associated with having been in the car. 'I would certainly bet

an awful lot,' an awful lot, there was something in that car. Is this

your vehicle? Yes, it is my car. The driver seems quite amenable...

I've, I've just been...erm, the hotel. ..if a little vague. Have

you had anything to drink today? OK, you've got a brake light out.

Have I? Where do these, do these, where do these people live? Erm,

they live, I-I...they live... they don't live here? Well, they

asked me to drop 'em, they said they knew someone here. Matt, he

said he lived there he doesn't. was able to go down the road and

just catch up with, erm, well one of the other two. That's her Mum's

house? So where you going now? going round to the back garden.

man's story is a good 'un, but typically Shona hasn't bought it.

'I locked the traffic car and as I've run round the corner' she was

quite a way away up that road so there was no way she was going into

the back garden of that house which is what matey boy had initially

said. What were you going in the house for, then? That's where her

Mum lives. If they hadn't been in such a hurry to disappear they

might not have aroused any suspicion. But now, after all their

flimflam Shona's going to follow her hunch and search their car.

believe there was something in that vehicle that they didn't want us to

find 'so I searched the vehicle under the Police and Criminal

Evidence Act.' Shona's instinct is spot on. They've been on a shopping

spree. It's got the security tag still around it. It's worth quite a

bit of money really, which is obviously why they've just decided

to get out and walk away. There's also some pliers, handy for

removing the security tags. All in all, a tidy haul of toiletries

worth over �200. They've obviously just committed a theft from a shop

which is why they wanted to get away in the first place and why

both the passengers had got out the vehicle to disassociate themselves

with anything that was in that car. I want to blow my nose, can I go

and get a tissue out me car? Oh... OK. OK. What's your name, flower?

My name's Charles Hornby. Charles? Yeah. Charles, have you ever been

in trouble with the police before? Ever been arrested? Erm...yeah,

yeah, oh, yeah. Are you well known to us? No. OK. 'He reminded me of

somebody's granddad, really. 'He was very...he seemed quite nervous,

'he was being very woolly about his answers. 'He didn't really know why

he dropped them off or who lived at that address.' And he was kind of

playing a bit dumb. They said to drop them here. 'And all it was

doing was arousing my suspicions even further.' We found some items

in a carrier bag in the car. Are they yours? No. No, they had bags

with them. What kind of bags would they have with them? Erm... I think

a green bag, I think. I didn't really take no notice. Right, OK.

think. Oh, dear, but it's in your car. I take it you're saying

there's something in there that shouldn't be. Well, quite possibly.

OK, yeah, well... I'm asking for your account before we do anything

about it. Yeah, no, it's... They're not my bags. They're not mine.

have they got in the back? Don't wander off, please. BOTH: No, we

won't. A check of the man in glasses has revealed he likes to do

a bit of shopping, but he's not one for loyalty cards. I think he was

wanted for a number of offences in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire and

a warrant as well. So he was going nowhere. Nowhere apart from the

nick. All three are going to be arrested on suspicion of

shoplifting. OK, what's happening is you two are both also under

arrest on suspicion of the theft. haven't done anything. On suspicion

of theft... Tell him. Tell him, please. You don't have to say

anything but it may harm your defence if... There's little honour

amongst these thieves. It's... It's something that they've, I'm sure

they've sort of prearranged that if they get caught he'll take the

blame. He's just taken full responsibility. At the end of the

day, getting out and running off up the road isn't the actions of an

innocent party. They'll stick together to the point where there's

no return, then they'll just dump each other in it. Their supermarket

sweep has earned them today's star prize... A trip to the police

station. Back on the M1, the investigation into why there was

nearly a disaster on the motorway has begun. The question is, why did

the lorry cross over to the other side of the road? A specialist

accident investigator has arrived to take stock of all the evidence.

'The first walk-through is' let's see what you've got, and then speak

to the people in charge. And you then start to pick out - the

barrier was down, you've then got a mass of vehicles, and in particular

one seriously damaged vehicle. And then, it's sort of then blocked out.

Although the suspicion is that the lorry driver is to blame for the

crash, Bob will do whatever it takes to ensure there weren't any

other reasons for it. You've got to get it right and you only ever have

one chance. 'It therefore has to be done properly and correctly at the

time and... 'and you know, if it takes a couple more minutes extra,

'then that's what it's got... That's what you've got to do.'

though it's the first real big crash he's been to, Chris has been

put in charge. 'Everybody's doing their little bit,' and one person

has to take the investigation on. 'Because there wasn't any apparent

serious injuries and it wasn't life-changing, 'then it's just one

of the officers that turns up,' it becomes their job to investigate.

So it was my turn, being the new boy. The lorry driver's initial

account was that he had begun to feel unwell and had intended to

pull off at the next junction, just a few hundred metres further on.

Another witness, still at the scene, the driver of a southbound lorry

that narrowly escaped being hit, remembers graphically what happened

next. As he came over, he wasn't even in the driver's seat, it threw

him out the seat. He was over the other side of the cab. Because I

could see his high-vis jacket. And so I ran up there and... When it

had all stopped, like, and helped him out. And he thinks he passed

out. So... Yeah, scary stuff. gone from lane one of a three-lane

motorway, 'come straight across, over the central reservation,

'collided with two or three cars, collided with a camper van, then

parked up.' He says he doesn't remember anything, and then he woke

up slumped at the wheel, and then he couldn't open his door so he

climbed out of his... Out of his cab window, fell to the floor and

he was then seen to by a first aider before the ambulances arrived.

But for Bob, something doesn't quite add up. Now, we've got an

impact, the lorry's come through, we've got an impact on this

nearside reservation, and then we've got an oil trail all the way

along here. And then it finishes in lane one when the lorry's moved

across to the hard shoulder. There's a bit of a strange scenario

going on here at the moment. From the evidence, it appears that the

lorry came to a rest, but it then moved again to its final position

on the hard shoulder. You work your way through the scene and obviously

there is then another movement of the vehicle. Is that again

consistent with someone that is ill at the wheel? You know, they've

actually come to rest in lane one, they've got... They've stopped

their vehicle facing the wrong way in a live running lane, I'll move

the vehicle onto the hard shoulder where it's safer. I... I don't know,

I mean, to me, it just... If it's come to rest, it's come to rest.

Why move the vehicle? It's been nearly seven hours since the

accident brought the southbound M1 to a halt. Once the barriers are

repaired, it will at last be reopened. The cops' investigation

Long after their shift was supposed to have finished, Shona and Matt

are still hard at work dealing with the suspected shoplifters. 'Once

all three had been booked into custody, I had to make sure 'that

there weren't any further outstanding offences for them 'that

they'd need to be arrested for and interviewed for at a later date. I

was really surprised at the amount of intelligence that popped up for

each of them. It's a possible warrant for this chap. Non-payment

of fines. Warrants have been issued for the arrest of all three of them

for previous suspected offences. There's an outstanding warrant of

�625. So she's not going anywhere tonight. He has a warrant, a non-

payment of fines warrant, erm... For �257.84. So once he's been

dealt with for the theft, he'll be arrested for non-payment. So he

isn't going anywhere tonight, he'll go to court tomorrow. The man in

glasses and the woman appear to be serial shoplifters and have even

been caught on CCTV. It's expensive booze, as well as toiletries that

they seem to be interested in. They just pop it straight into their

shopping bag and calmly walk out. Come out here, please. The man is a

drug user and shoplifts to fund his habit. Most, I would say most

shoplifting, in fact, pretty much most crime is drug-based. You can

see that on the people that we've stopped. They're a pretty pathetic

little group really, when you think about it. But that's their life,

their lifestyle and they won't change until they get off drugs.

Because of the amount of thefts uncovered, the police have got

authorisation to search the suspects' houses. They've gone to

do a section 18 on the property, to see what stolen property, if any,

is a their home addresses. So what's going to happen now is

they'll be kept in the cells till tomorrow morning and interviewed

for the offences we've arrested them today for and their

outstanding crimes. And then they'll be sent to court and then

dealt with in Hertfordshire for Sometimes even minor road traffic

accidents warrant a fast response. News is coming in of another

collision, not on the motorway this time, but on an estate in Luton

where it's reported the driver involved doesn't want to stick

around. That me? Yeah. 1261. 'We do have get there quite quick, cos

obviously we don't want the driver disappearing.' It could suggest

numerously, whether it could be a stolen vehicle someone's trying to

leg it from, or it's just an exaggeration on someone's part that

someone's looking to walk away. You just don't know till you arrive.

'When we got there, there was a number of people in the street,'

all debating about a crash that had occurred. Everyone all right? 'My

initial actions were to find out who was actually involved in it,

'as opposed to who the passers-by and who the onlookers were.' I live

next door to him, yeah? Sorry, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on. So

you're... You're... His neighbour. Yeah. At number 64? 68. 70.

You're at 68? The driver involved is still here. That's it. Something

happened to your suspension and you smashed into the car? My eyes

are...eyeglasses...little problem. You can't see? I think we soon

discounted that. And he came up with the suggestion that he'd got

on the wrong glasses and actually couldn't see. You can't see? No, I

can't see. You can't see anything? Why are you driving if you can't

see? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's no good being sorry, you could kill

someone, couldn't you? No, I'm not driving fast. You're not driving

fast? OK, so you just knock someone down very slowly then. Yes. Yeah,

OK. I think we've got a problem with you, young man, don't you?

Always, I'm just a hard-working person. OK, right. You got a

licence on you? I got it in... got a driving licence? No.

don't have a driving licence? have but not in my pocket. OK, do

you have insurance for the vehicle? Yeah. OK. It's a construction

company. Production company? Construction. Construction company.

Can you come and sit in our car for us, all right? The man with the

glasses has managed to drive into somebody's parked car. Basically,

you've got a parked car here. The guy the sergeant's speaking to at

the moment has... I'm not sure which way he's been going yet, I

think he's been coming down the road. And for an unknown reason

he's gone into the side of him. And it transpires his vision isn't very

good and he's already said he shouldn't be driving cos he can't

see. You're driving but you can't see through your glasses, why?

can see in my glasses. Someone goes in here, a headlight. Yeah... OK.

Right, you need... You can understand my problem. Yeah, you

need to go to the opticians, don't you? Yeah, yeah, I always go to

Space Savers. Getting his glasses from Space Savers could be the

problem. Raminder. 28. Yeah. Yeah. 74. 74? Yeah. The neighbours

have taken a dim view of what's gone on. Just thought I hope his

insurance will cover the damage, that's all. Look at the car, the

whole back end's gone in. Right, let's see how bad your eyesight is

then, shall we? He's going to be made to read a licence plate, a

test recognised by the Highway Code. Tell me what that car registration

number is. With the glasses on. can't see, you know. The spray.

Right, with your glasses on, tell me what that number is. To pass, he

must be able to read it from 20 metres away. You can't see it, OK.

Walk a bit further, closer. OK? Erm... Yeah. You can see it, where?

Now? J O J. J O J. OK, that's fine. Do us a favour, hold that. Just

there. Because of something on his glasses, concrete spray, he says,

he can only see the number from 10 metres. He's failed the test. If

only he'd gone to Space Savers. 'The test is 20 metres,' and he

could see after 10 metres, this number plate. Which was a bit of a

concern to me, the fact that he was driving in the dark in these

glasses only being able to see that much. Right, that there, providing

you can see it, is details of the car you hit, OK. It's got the

gentleman's name, his insurance company, his address I feel guilty.

I feel shame. But I am only British single guy who is going to work on

concrete bridges. Tall, skinny guy. You can see my arm, you can see

everything. But I feel ashamed. I am not going to any drive more.

is the norm for any road accident, the driver is going to be put

through the procedure of a breath test. Have you drunk any alcohol in

the last 24 hours? No? Good man. OK, because you were involved in a road

traffic collision, OK, we require a specimen of breath. Have you ever

done this before? No. Right. Never in my life. OK, no problem. You

understand what I'm telling you, yeah? OK, seal your lips around the

tube, long continual breath, blow. Keep blowing, keep blowing, keep

blowing, and stop. OK, what it does now, it analyses your breath for me.

And it'll tell me if anything, if you've got any alcohol in your

system. From what you were telling me it should come up zero. But it

hasn't. Even for a seasoned traffic cop like Craig, the reading that

has come up is a complete shock. Have you seriously not drunk any

alcohol? It's well over the 35 limit. You're lying to me. You're

under arrest. OK. The man appears to be blind drunk. You don't have

to say anything but it may harm your defence if you fail to mention

something which you later rely on it court.... Come on. This way.

Nice try. 134. At that reading, you expect to be seeing signs, some

form of sign, be it slurred speech, staggering a bit, not making sense

with your words. Actually, being four times the limit, as he is,

most people wouldn't still be standing. 'I think both myself and

Craig thought the machine might have been a little bit wrong,'

because the guy walked, talked, didn't smell of any alcohol, and as

far as I was concerned he was as sober as anyone. A little bit of

what? Only a vodka and one beer. Vodka and beer? Only. How much

vodka did you have? Erm... ..that much. Just that much, and a beer?

No, beer is fuller. But only that much. OK. So you're telling me

you've only today, you've only had one vodka and one... Beer. And...

Two beer. And two beers? Yeah. I'm not a bad guy. No, no, no, no. No-

one's saying you're a bad guy, but we'll see what your reading is.

Because I can't see. It's concrete spray. I think what we'll go with,

you can't see and you've had a bit too much to drink. Yeah. Yeah, I

think that's fairer... I can understand. It's my fault. I mean,

him himself, he's a very personable guy. But at the end of the day,

he's a potential killer. And that's why we have to get him off the road.

The roadside breathalyser is normally pretty accurate. Even so,

the man who's still showing no outward signs of being drunk is

going to be tested again on a specially calibrated machine.

know, he was walking steadily and he was talking all right, his eyes

looked OK. Everything said that he was sober. For the offence of?

Positive breath test at a road traffic collision. While we're

waiting, can you put everything in your pockets on here for me,

please? 'We took him back to custody, where we booked him in

with the custody sergeant.' He obviously saw the funny side of it,

as well. Cos people just haven't seen it, to get the blind and the

drunk in one go, and especially to be standing like he was. He did

throw a lot of officers. What are they? Equally bizarre is what's in

his pockets. You don't know what they are? After drink. You have

them after a drink. Oh, my God. That could be the problem. What are

they? I've no...I don't know! are in fact poppy heads, used to

make poppy tea, which can contain morphine. Are these poppies?

Despite being in his pockets, the man doesn't seem to know anything

about them. Hang on, they're in your pocket. Not my jacket. It's

not your jacket? No. My friend's jacket. It's your friend's? After

we drink, I wear it. And then drive the car. It was quite comical, the

way he come out with everything just to try and push it all the way,

and no, it's nothing to do with him. Right, come on then. Go on, keep

going, keep going, go on, go on, go on, keep going, keep going, keep

going, keep going, keep going, go on, lovely. We've done it. All

right. OK, do you want to sit down before you fall down? Right, well

unfortunately you're just over the limit by a little bit, sort of,

about four times the limit. Yeah? Yeah, four times the limit.

reading backs up the initial roadside test. He's going to need

some real tea to help him sober up. 'He had a wife and he's got

children as well. 'And he did state the day after, he was going up

north with his family, 'and he'd be under the influence of alcohol with

those in the car.' So it's just a... In Luton, Shona is back on duty,

and on the lookout for more bad drivers. She doesn't find it hard,

because for some reason she's got a knack of being in the right place

at the right time. 'Being on traffic gives me a chance to do

what I enjoy doing best really, reacting to circumstances 'and

being able to go hunting. 'Nine times out of ten you're bound to

come across something.' And that unfortunately, or fortunately for

me, just happens to be my way, that things come to me without me having

to look too hard. Already something has caught her eye. What are these

two getting up to over here? 'My attention was drawn to two guys at

the side of a quite nice Jaguar car parked up. 'It just looked like

it'd been dumped, just literally driven in and stopped.' Hello! Yeah,

who's car's that then? This? Yeah. It's mine. It's yours, is it?

Are you driving it? Yeah, well not at the moment, no. Why? What's the

matter with it? It's got something wrong with it underneath. Oh, has

it? Yeah. Oh, heavens. Where have you driven from this morning then?

We went from our home. Which is where? In Bray. Right, and where

are you going to? We've got to wait here now. My dad's coming. Right,

what's wrong with it then? Let's have a look. It's got a problem

under here. Golf Alpha Seven, is there any unit that can come and

assist me, please, on Dunstable road, next to the ESSO garage?

'Yeah, we're behind you.' You do learn how to read people, and you

do know how... When they're lying to you, you can pick it up pretty

quickly, cos they...they waffle. And they're a little bit woolly

with their answers, so to speak. So did you drive here, then? No.

did you get here? Here? Yeah. How have you got onto this forecourt.

My...my friend come and drove us here. And now he's gone. Have a

look. Step away. Step away, just step to the back of the car for me.

Just go and step to the back of the car. I'm not going to bend down if

you're that close to me. Just move away and I'll have a look. Have you

got the keys to your car? What's the...? Nothing, they're

both...hang on. Can I have the keys to your car, just two seconds?

Just... Sorry, he's searching this guy's jacket. Right. Which made me

think, has he got something on him? He's seen all the police cars and

wants to dump stuff. So I pulled up. They're being cagey about how they

got here. They said there's something wrong with the car and

someone's collecting it. So I want to check it and get some details.

Is that all right? Sorry. Enough to give us a search? The man in the

baseball cap's story really doesn't add up. It's his car and he had the

keys, yet he says somebody else, who's not there, has been driving

it. Well, no, that's why I'm wondering how your car's got here.

I told you, my friend. And then it bloody went kaput underneath.

there's nothing hanging down. well, I don't...I don't... I don't

really see... So who? Is it your...? That's all right, no, it's

fine. Yeah, but I don't really see why all these police cars are here.

You know, what for? Nobody was driving it when you come here.

that's fine. You know that, so... was get... I think I was getting my

jacket out of the back. So it's your car, is it, Paul? Yeah, it is

my car but my brother's the one on the log book. Oh, right, OK. Paul

has got an explanation why he wasn't driving his car. It's very

annoying. I mean, I can't drive because I'm... I've had a crash in

2002 and I mean, it was a stolen car, and, you know, my girlfriend

died and because of that I'm... I think I've changed my life. And,

you know, I loved her and so to drive, for me, would just be stupid

and I wouldn't do it. Paul is a disqualified driver. Thank you, I

appreciate that. See, I haven't had... Haven't no bad dealings with

the police for quite some time now. I used to be a real bad one, you

know. Yeah, but I'm not any more. Without any proof he was driving

today, Shona's going to have to let him go. But it really rankles.

though he'd come up with his story, I still believed that he'd been

driving. He'd seen the amount of police vehicles in the area, and

had thought, actually I'd better stop driving before I get caught

driving, and then leave the car and then come back when all the police

cars have disappeared. That's what I had in the back of my mind. But

there is a glimmer of hope for Shona. She's going to check the

garage's CCTV system to see if anything might have been caught on

one of their cameras. And it has. And the CCTV showed the chap with

the baseball cap getting out of the driver's door. So this story of his

mate driving him onto the forecourt, having broken down and left it

there and waiting for recovery was clearly just that. From just a

little bit of police work and some questioning, we've got a

disqualified driver who we've not even seen driving but he's been

caught on CCTV driving. It's the end of the road for Paul. Even

though his driving ban from 2002 was up, he had never bothered to

retake his test and become a legal driver again. So you know, like

it's driving whilst disqualified, ain't it? Yeah. Yeah. When were you

disqualified? A long time ago? Yeah. Was that me that got you

disqualified? No, no. Unless you was there when... Paul's looking at

a further disqualification from driving and will have his Jag

seized. A bitter pill for him to swallow. It is pretty bad, because

it's going to be quite horrific for him to not only be in an accident

where somebody's died, but to have lost a loved one. It does make you

think, oh, it must be quite hard for him to even get back in a car,

let alone consider driving it, especially when you've been

Following the terrifying crossover accident near Toddington on the M1,

the traffic is running normally again, and Bob's side of the

investigation is all but over. He's discounted there being any

mechanical problems with the lorry itself. Using the plan, we can plot

the vehicles through, identifying impact points and vehicle movements.

And although his sketches tell the story of how it all happened, they

can't begin to tell why it happened. However, there's been a discovery

that could help answer the question. In the cabin of the wagon that he

was driving, we found various documents that related to him and

his driver's history. Whenever people drive heavy good vehicles

professionally, they must keep a tachograph, which is effectively a

record of how long they've been driving, how fast they've driven

and how far they've driven. There were a few discrepancies over the

course of a few months. On a few occasions he'd exceeded his daily

driving allowance. He'd failed to take breaks and so forth. He had

worked the previous night, finished in the wee small hours, and then

had a telephone call from his drivers' agency telling him that

this particular company were a man short and that he would be required

to work. That left him a fairly short amount of time between shifts.

We worked out he'd been without food for 17 hours. And we just

couldn't believe that. 'There's always a cause to an accident.

'Whether that be a mechanical failure, whether that be someone's

poor driving, 'there's always a cause to an accident.' We obviously

need to find out what his version of events are. Three weeks after

the accident, they are at last going to hear his side of the story.

In order to do it formally, he's been summoned to the police station

to be arrested, on suspicion of dangerous driving. We need to

ascertain some detail from him that we're not able to just talk to him

about. We need to do it formally so that we can gather his version of

events as evidence. He remembered passing the services, and as he

passed the entrance to the services he remembered feeling a bit woozy,

sweaty, clammy and generally unwell. He considered moving to the hard

shoulder, but that was coned off. He then thought that he could make

it to the safety of the junction, and that was the last thing that he

remembered. However, he also revealed that when he was in

hospital, it was discovered that he had a pre-existing medical

condition that could cause him to lose consciousness. As a

consequence, the Crown Prosecution Service decided it could not

proceed with the case, despite a lack of sustenance also being a

possible cause. I presented the evidence to the CPS to say, 'this

is what the hospital have said, this is what we BELIEVE might have

happened.' Andy and I think he had low blood sugar, he's passed out at

the wheel, because of the amount of time that he has gone without food.

And because of that, the CPS said we can't run it, purely can't run

it. Because if a credible medical expert comes up and says, yes, he

had that condition, it would be thousands of pounds wasted at court.

The driver of the crushed Passat who survived the impact with the

lorry, Nigel Sweeney, has been left feeling frustrated, but lucky to be

alive. Jeez. This... Seeing it like that is... Understand why, you know,

the damage was done. As soon as I got into hospital, I thought to

myself, well, how could that have happened? What...what was...? Why

did the lorry swerve? It's the first time he's seen the pictures

of the crash. See, even now, I can't remember it like that. I

can't... I just... Just remember walking away. It's actually quite

horrendous. It's worse than I thought it was. Took a time for the

lorry to hit me and I keep thinking to myself maybe I could have

avoided him. Could I have done something to... To have stayed out

of his way? Huh...Jeez. Oh, God. I'm glad I've seen it now because

it... It's actually different to what I remember, and now I can

actually piece it all together, to be honest. I felt that I cheated

death, basically. I really thought I was going to die when I saw the

lorry come bearing down on me. disqualified Jag driver who wasn't

so lucky when he was caught in the act on a garage's CCTV, was banned

from driving for a further three years and given a 12-week suspended

prison sentence. The man Shona thought was

somebody's granddad was fined a �100 and given six points for

driving without insurance or a valid licence. He wasn't charged

with shoplifting. His two passengers were though, the male

was given a four month suspended prison sentence for two counts of

theft and his accomplice a community order for a number of

different offences. The young driver chased and caught by the

cops turned out to be only 16 years old. He wasn't a burglar after all,

but he had pinched his mum's car, for which he was given a three-

month Youth Referral Order. And the tall skinny guy didn't only

lie about the amount he had drunk, he also lied about his identity. He