Driver jailed for collision with police car after travelling wrong way on M65

Thursday, October 17, 2024

A driver who crashed a car into a police vehicle after travelling the wrong way on roundabout has been jailed. 

Mohammed Zafar (pictured right) had driven an Audi SQ5 the wrong way along the M65 before leaving the motorway at junction 14 at Colne.

Zafar’s Audi went the wrong way on the roundabout leaving the motorway and collided head on with a liveried police car.

There were two officers in the police car, one of who suffered a broken wrist in the collision, the other suffering neck and back pain as a result.

A backseat passenger in Zafar’s car suffered a broken arm.

The Audi had been seen driving erratically in the Blackburn area on the evening of 4^th December 2022.

Officers requested it to stop but it failed to do so and after a brief pursuit, the Audi was lost.

However, the Audi was seen again at 10.34pm in Nelson and a second pursuit began.

The Audi travelled on to the M65 at junction 12, travelling eastbound on the westbound carriageway.

It was when exiting the M65 that it collided with the police car on the roundabout.

Zafar ran from the Audi and was chased and arrested. Traces of his saliva were found on the driver’s airbag.

At Preston Crown Court on Tuesday (15^th October), Zafar, 21, of Lammack Road, Blackburn, was jailed for two years after pleading guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving and aggravated vehicle taking.

Zafar was disqualified from driving for four years.

PC Lee Pendlebury of our Road Crime Team, said: “This was a dangerous and disgraceful piece of driving which put other road users at grave risk and resulted in two police officers being injured.

“The car was driven on the wrong side of the motorway for a considerable distance and collided with the police car when travelling the wrong way on a roundabout.”