P-plater loses 10 demerit points and is fined $300 for using his phone to film an elderly man driving the wrong way down a highway – but is it fair?
- Terrifying moment a car speeds into oncoming traffic on busy Sydney morotway
- Silver sedan seen racing past trucks and weaving in and out of oncoming traffic
- P-plater who filmed car was fined and hit with 10 demerit points for phone use
- Police embarrassingly declared the incident a social media stunt at the time
- Turned out to be an elderly man who was sent for a fitness to drive check
A P-plater who filmed an elderly man weaving through head-on traffic while driving on the wrong side of a motorway has been fined $337.
The sedan was seen speeding east along the westbound lanes of Sydney’s M5 motorway in Liverpool about 10.25pm on December 30.
The 68-year-old driver was pulled over a short time later and ‘spoken to about his actions’ before being let go.
Police lodged a fitness to drive application against the elderly motorist, but said no further action was expected to be taken.
The concerned P-plater who filmed the dangerous behaviour, on the other hand, was on Saturday slapped with a $337 fine and 10 demerit points.
The whopping penalty for using a mobile phone while driving was handed down due to it taking place during a double demerits period.
Social media users jumped to the young driver’s defence, pointing out that if the wayward car was involved in a deadly crash police would need the footage.
Police were also under fire for jumping the gun when the video circulated on social media and calling it a social media stunt that could have had a ‘quite catastrophic’ outcome.
‘These two drivers probably think they’re pretty funny but they’re not,’ Chief Inspector Phil Brooks told reporters at the time.
‘It appears to be a social media stunt. This is a number of road users taking risks to try and make themselves popular on Facebook. Well it’s failed, not even the people on Facebook accept this behaviour.’
This is the terrifying moment a car speeds into oncoming traffic on a busy Sydney motorway
Instead, the driver was an elderly man and not known to the P-plater who filmed the incident and uploaded it to Snapchat.
The driver was seen moving past a truck and continuing down the wrong side of the concrete barrier on the six-lane motorway.
Sitting in the farthest lane, the car then went straight on, driving into traffic coming in the opposite direction.
It continued to weave in and out of traffic while it travels down the shoulder of the motorway, before turning around and driving in the right direction.
A silver sedan is seen racing past trucks and weaving in and out of traffic on Sydney’s M5 motorway
The video was viewed more than 10,000 times before being taken down, with many worried that the driver was putting other people’s lives at risk.
‘This is not cool or funny! People want to risk there own life fine, dnt (sic) do it at someone else’s expense,’ one Facebook user wrote.
‘Running a mock.. (sic) or more like the driver is digging his own grave,’ another person commented.
Other people were bewildered the driver wasn’t caught by police, especially since double demerits are in place state-wide.
‘Did he forget it’s still double demerits in Sydney,’ one user commented.
Social media users, and it appeared NSW Police at the time, were unaware that the driver was indeed caught.