10mph motorway driver must retake test

A disabled motorist who caused traffic chaos when she drove along a motorway at 10mph has been ordered to retake her test before she drives again.

Stephanie Cole, 57, who was being treated for a phobia of motorways, had strayed on to the M32 near Bristol. Other drivers were forced to swerve to avoid running into the back of her Perodua Kenari MPV as it straddled the hard shoulder and inside lane. A sign in the back window said: “I do not drive fast, please overtake.”

The police officer who pulled Mrs Cole over said that not only was she driving so slowly as to create a hazard to other motorists, she kept braking unexpectedly and slowing to walking pace.

Mrs Cole, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and had her wheelchair in the back of the car, had been warned to expect a lengthy ban at an earlier hearing at which she pleaded guilty to inconsiderate driving. But magistrates at North Avon yesterday took pity on her after hearing that she needed her car to get to the shops.

Instead she was given a three-month conditional discharge, banned from driving for seven days and told to retake her driving test before she gets behind the wheel again.

Magistrates were told that Mrs Cole had an unblemished 30-year driving record and was all right on A roads, but as soon as she got on to a motorway her confidence disappeared. She said she had been having treatment from a GP for her fear of driving for three years. Mrs Cole, of Fishponds, Bristol, said: “I think a driver improvement course would help.”

She was charged after she was stopped on the M32 in Bristol at 1pm on August 30 last year. PC Duncan Verel escorted her off the motorway. Mrs Cole, a former station assistant at BBC Radio Nottingham, said that she had joined the motorway by accident.

She said: “Once I realised that there was no exit from the motorway, that was when my confidence deserted me. The policeman who pulled me over was unaware of my disability.

“As soon as I got off the motorway my driving was perfectly all right. I drive perfectly well on normal city roads but I have a phobia when I get on a motorway.

“I live alone and I am fiercely independent. Losing my licence will leave me with no social life ? I won’t be able to go shopping or drive to the chemist to pick up my prescriptions. No driving licence for me means I will have no life.”

Requiring her to retake her test, magistrate Dawn Killick told her: “We have serious concerns for your safety and that of other road users.”

As she left court Mrs Cole said: “I’m very disappointed but will be back driving.”

http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/driving/article3134114.ece