Motorbike speeds into oncoming traffic on A127

A woman, who narrowly avoided crashing into the biker, has urged other drivers to be careful after the terrifying experience which left her “heart racing”.

The woman, who didn’t want to be named, was in the car with her partner driving London-bound when they had to swerve out of the way of the biker.

The incident happened at around 7pm on Tuesday, just after the Rayleigh Weir junction.

The woman said: “I looked up and there was a guy in the middle of our line driving towards us on a motorbike.

“He wasn’t wearing a helmet or leathers or anything.

“My partner said it looked like he had come off the pavement and drove down the wrong way in the outside lane.

“It was busy and there were other cars on the road.

“I looked back waiting for another car to swerve out the way.

“He was just flying down the road in the middle of the lane.

“I was just shocked. My heart was racing.

“I said to my partner I can’t believe we saw that.”

The couple were left fearing there would be a nasty crash after the near-miss.

The woman said: “I don’t know what part of his brain thought that was a good idea.

“The motion of my partner swerving out the way was what made me look up.

“It was just so weird. I know we have a problem with gangs in Leigh and I didn’t know if it was part of a stupid gang initiation.

“I instantly thought on our way home we were going to see an ambulance.

“I’d just warn people to be careful. It’s not you that you have to worry about. You can’t predict other people.”

Shadow councillor in charge of community safety, Dan Nelson added: “There’s clearly a set of people who will always drive stupidly but what I would say is just because someone is behaving like an idiot it doesn’t mean they are a member of a gang and we have to be careful about judging other people.

“If anyone has information I would encourage them to report it. I would encourage people to drive safely and not put themselves or others at risk.”