Wrong-way Shropshire M54 truck driver is given three-year ban

Jaromir Kucera was also banned from the road for three years after he was seen heading to the M54 on the wrong side of a motorway link road in Telford.

He only stopped when worried drivers in the area decided to block his path.

The 54-year-old, from the Czech Republic, admitted an offence of failing to provide a specimen for analysis and an offence of driving without due care and attention.

The case relates to an incident when motorists blocked the road to prevent a lorry from heading down the wrong way down the motorway exit.

Car driver Richard Soame, who was driving on the opposite side of the Stafford Park link road as the drama unfolded on Saturday night, today criticised the sentence given at Telford Magistrates Court on Monday, saying it was too lenient.

For failing to provide a specimen, Kucera was jailed for four-and-a-half months suspended for two years, disqualified from driving for 36 months, ordered to pay a victims' surcharge of £115 and costs of £135. For driving without due care and attention he was fined £250.

But Mr Soame, 46, of Ironbridge, said: "I do not agree with the sentence this driver has received. He should have been sent to jail for his actions."

"The fact that he had driven half a mile down the dual carriageway should have been enough to put him behind bars.

"I think the Crown Prosecution Service has been a bit soft on this occasion. I feel everybody has been let down."

Mr Soame was driving towards the motorway when he saw the lorry travelling in the same the same direction as him – but on the wrong carriageway.

He and a female motorist in another car attempted to pull in front of the lorry on the A464 island before dialling 999 for help.

Following Sunday's incident, Mr Soame said: ""The driver was going towards the motorway and so I was flashing the lights at anyone coming towards the town centre to warn them that there was something wrong in front of them.

"I went round the island and said to myself if I have to risk the car I will because it could save someone's life."

Mr Soame said he had initially seen the driver clip another car and had called the police to alert them.

He said: "When the started pulling away and that's when I went into what someone called "action man zone". I thought, he's a big vehicle, a considerable weight and if he hits anyone it would be fatal. I just went into that mode where preserving someone's life is more important.

"The way he was going he would have gone down onto the M54, and at that time of night when you have people coming home from the football, days out shopping, it does not bear thinking about. It could have been carnage. That is what was in my mind because I saw an accident a few years ago when a lorry got onto the wrong side of the road and there is just no stopping them."

The Crown Prosecution Service was unavailable for comment.