Two police officers have been given bravery awards - after risking a head-on collision when trying to stop a car driving the wrong way down a motorway.
Pcs Craig Graves and Steven Hudson, from West Midlands Police, were given a Chief Constable's Commendation for stopping the car which was travelling at 70mph down the M6 toll last August.
Officers set up a road block after a 77-year-old driver, who suffered from dementia, drove the wrong way down the northbound carriageway near Sutton Coldfield.
Pcs Graves and Hudson were at the front of the road block and deliberately crashed their car into the pensioner's Honda Jazz to force it into the central reservation.
Pc Graves said: "I thought the driver of the Honda would see our lights and slow to a stop, but he didn't and just kept coming towards us. I turned slightly to the left in order to make contact while lessening the sudden impact, forcing the vehicle into the central reservation.
"When Pc Hudson approached the elderly man, he wasn't wearing his seat belt so a head-on collision could have been fatal.
"The vehicle directly behind us - which would have been in the path of the Honda - contained a dad and his three young children, so it was very fortunate the end result was successful and nobody was seriously injured."