A RETIRED driving instructor has been hailed a hero for his coolness during a drunken woman's terror drive along a Hampshire motorway.

A convoy of vehicles followed Reg Marshall down the M27 as he frantically warned them not to overtake because of the woman's erratic driving. She crashed into a road sign about ten miles later.

When police searched her car, they discovered a half-empty bottle of whisky. A blood test revealed she was more than three times over the drink-drive limit.

Yesterday Judge David Griffiths commended Mr Marshall, of Fox Lane, Stanmore, Winchester.

The defendant, Angela McAlpine-Waugh, 41, who had been sobbing during the hearing, became hysterical when she realised she was going to prison for six months and turned to her husband in the public gallery and screamed: "Don't let them do this to me. I'll kill myself."

McAlpine-Waugh, of Clarendon Road, West Croydon, admitted driving with excess alcohol and dangerously. She was also banned for five years.

Matthew Jewell, prosecuting, described how the drama began when an articulated lorry had to swerve to avoid a collision with her. She was driving at 20mph with her hazard lights flashing.

Mr Marshall - who has held a licence for almost 50 years - also overtook her, but she then began tailgating him so closely that he could not see her registration plates and lights.

He tried to get her to pull over because she might have been unwell because of her "fixed stare". She, however, overtook him and veered across the three-lane carriageway. "Traffic was going in all directions to avoid her."

Mr Marshall followed her at a safe distance and rang 999 to alert the police but he was told they were already on their way because someone else had reported her driving.

As she approached the M271 junction at Nursling, Southampton, McAlpine-Waugh was weaving in and out of the traffic, her speed increasing and decreasing.

Mr Marshall then followed her in the middle lane and put on his hazard lights, indicating to other traffic not to overtake.

"The message got through because there was convoy of vehicles following him down the M27,'' said Mr Jewell.

The drama ended after the woman had driven onto the A31 at Cadnam in the New Forest, where at the top of a hill she tried to take a right- hand bend but hit the offside verge, sending the vehicle across the other side of the road. It then hit the nearside verge, "jumped" into the air and crashed into a sign.

Mr Marshall stopped and dashed over to snatch Mc-Alpine-Waugh's car keys.

She pleaded with him to give them back because she had to see her daughter, who she falsely claimed was dying.

Ben Compton, defending, said she was appalled at her driving.

She clearly had a lot to drink, although she claimed she had only three glasses of wine that day and had no recollection of getting into the car.

After the hearing Mr Marshall, 66, who was a driving instructor for more than 20 years and a former Southampton city councillor, said: "My thoughts at the time were to protect the traffic that was on the road - it was the most dangerous piece of driving that I have ever seen.

"When it was over I felt very pleased that no one was hurt or taken out in the crash, that was my main consideration."