A TRUCK driver carrying a cargo of fireworks and cider drove the wrong way down the M40.
Archibald McCafferty was at the wheel of his 18-tonne Volvo lorry on October 16 when he smashed through the central reservation and drove into oncoming traffic.
Having earlier admitted dangerous driving, he was sentenced at Oxford Crown Court on Friday.
Kevin West, prosecuting, said the 66-year-old was on the southbound carriageway close to Junction 11 for Banbury when he began feeling dizzy.
He said: “He crashed into the central reservation and into the fast lane of the northbound carriageway and continued driving towards oncoming traffic.”
Mr West said McCafferty, from Leeds, was forced to stop when an oncoming truck driver put on his hazard lights and slowed down.
McCafferty then performed a “multi-point turn”, exited the motorway and rejoined the southbound carriageway.
He was arrested on the hard shoulder.
He was given 80 hours’ unpaid work, a three-year driving ban and told to pay £600 costs.
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