A drink driver has been jailed for 14 months after causing a couple horrific and ‘life-changing’ injuries in a head-on smash when he drove the wrong way down the A30.

Michael Morgan, 56, may have been trying to kill himself when he steered his Vauxhall Astra straight at a car being driven by a husband and wife on a night out last October.

Exeter Crown Court heard this week Morgan, a London Underground engineer, did a U-turn on the dual carriageway between Exeter and Honiton before driving back into traffic until he crashed into Nicholas and Margaret Gordon.

He admitted drink driving and dangerous driving, and was jailed for 14 months and banned from driving for five years by Recorder Mr David Bartlett.

The recorder told him: “It is a miracle anyone got out of this accident alive.

“You were two times over the limit and that contributed substantially to this accident which was aggravated by you driving on the wrong side of a dual carriageway.”

Mother-of-two Margaret Gordon suffered horrific chest and stomach injuries, two broken legs and two cracked vertebrae.

She was warned she may not survive the night and spent ten days in intensive care and 40 in hospital.

Her husband suffered two cracked ribs, a severe cut to his leg and spent eight days in hospital.

Before the accident the couple, who live in Cornwall, were both keen hikers, and had just booked a walking holiday in the Lake District, but the court was told the effect of the crash has been life changing.

James Taghdissian, prosecuting, said Morgan had marital difficulties and had travelled from his home in Luton to the family’s holiday home in Paignton for the weekend of October 20 and 21 last year to seek a reconciliation.

But he was seen driving the wrong way along the A30 dual carriageway near Honiton just before the crash, and was found to be twice the legal limit.

Ceylan Bayram, defending, said Morgan is ashamed of what he did, but is adamant he was not trying to kill himself.