A pensioner was detained after driving the wrong way down a motorway for over 20km.

The incident occurred during the early hours of Thursday morning (August 27) on the M1 from Dublin to Belfast.

The motorist, reportedly in his 80s from Co Antrim, mistakenly travelled southbound in the northbound lanes. He reportedly encountered several near misses during the incident.

Miraculously, the car didn’t crash, and no one was hurt; the Sun reported that the cars that were travelling in the correct direction were ‘very lucky.’

It is understood that the driver travelled up to six junctions the wrong way on the M1, before being stopped near exit 13 at Dunleer, Co Louth.

The man wasn’t formally arrested following the incident, but was detained under mental health legislation. It was reported that he may have been disoriented due to an underlying medical condition.

Driving the wrong way down a motorway has come under fresh scrutiny following two separate incidents which saw joyriders driving the wrong way down motorways.

The first incident, which occurred on the M50, saw four teenage boys who were evading Gardaí crash into an apprentice in his 20s who was travelling in the correct direction. Everyone survived that crash, although the four boys, who were believed to be joyriding, and the apprentice were seriously injured.

Just over a week later, five teenagers were killed when the car they drove down the wrong way on the M9 crashed into a family of four who were travelling in the right direction. The four who were travelling in the right direction, three sisters and a seven-year-old boy, were seriously injured in the collision.

The five who were killed were identified as Jeremy O’Brien, 18, and his cousin Alex McCarthy, 16; Joey Carthy, 15; Jack Kennedy, 17; and Kamil Pustowski, 17.