Video shows drunk van driver crashing his vehicle on M1 motorway

Shocking footage shows the moment a drink-driver crashed his van after swerving across a busy motorway - before he was found fast asleep behind the wheel.

Jamie Barrett, 30, was spotted driving dangerously as he headed north along the M1 in Nottinghamshire on September 14 this year.

A concerned witness contacted police to describe his erratic driving as if he was "shaking his steering wheel quickly from left to right."

Dash-cam footage captured Barrett veering all the way from lanes one to four as he recklessly drove in his black Ford fan between junctions 25 and 26.

Barrett narrowly missed other vehicles and can be seen at one point colliding with the barriers before he came to a stop when he ran out of fuel.

Police body-cam shows how officers then discovered Barrett slumped behind the wheel fast asleep.

He was awoken by officers who said he began to speak incoherently and his speech was slurred. Further damage found to the van suggested he had also crashed into the motorway barriers earlier on in the journey.

Barrett, of Faldingworth, Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, was arrested following a roadside breath test. In custody, he then provided a sample of 84 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35 micrograms. He was charged and pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and driving over the legal alcohol limit.

He appeared at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court last Tuesday (3/10) where he was given a six-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months. He was also banned from driving for 12 months and ordered to carry out 180 hours’ unpaid work.

Nottinghamshire Police said they had released the footage as a reminder of the potentially fatal consequences of driving while under the influence of alcohol.

Sergeant Louis Jamieson said: "Barrett was driving on a busy motorway whilst under the influence of alcohol. It was more luck than anything else that no-one was injured, the consequences don't bear thinking about. This case serves as a stark reminder that those who drink and drive are never in control of their vehicle and are selfishly putting the lives of other road users at risk.

“Nottinghamshire Police takes offences like this very seriously and we will continue to do everything in our power to take people like Barrett off our roads. I also hope this case serves as a warning to others that if you've taken drugs or alcohol and you get behind the wheel, there's a high chance that we will catch you. Our work is ongoing all year round to stop drink and drug-drivers before they have the chance to cause serious harm.

"We will keep the pressure up and continue our work to educate and enforce wherever we can. If we have reason to believe you are driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs we will follow you, we will pull you over, and we will ensure you are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."