King's Medal for medics who stopped speeding car

The car crashed head on into the ambulance

Two paramedics who stopped a speeding car driving the wrong way on the motorway, have been awarded the King's Gallantry Medal.

Jake Walker drove his ambulance towards the path of the vehicle, in an attempt to get them to stop, colliding with them head on.

Despite the shock of the crash and suffering minor injuries, Mr Walker, from Rugby, and his colleague still rushed to treat the driver.

“It was about trying to protect others,” Mr Walker said.

Jake Walker says his aim was to protect other road users from a potentially life-threating crash

The incident took place during the early hours of 8 November, 2020.

The paramedics had been on their way to an early morning call out when they heard a radio warning about someone hurtling down the fast lane towards them on the M6.

After spotting the car in the distance concern for their fellow road users and the health of the driver spurred Jake and his colleague into action.

They positioned their vehicle across the fast lanes of the carriageway near junction 2, for Coventry, and turned on their blue lights and sirens in a bid to get the driver to stop.

However, it ploughed into the emergency vehicle head-on.

The emergency vehicle was able to bring the speeding car to a halt

“Initially I was quite shocked that he had actually driven into us, it’s quite a visible ambulance so I was expecting them to stop but he didn’t divert his course at all,” said Mr Walker who currently works for East Midlands Ambulance Service.

He and and his colleague leapt from the ambulance to offer assistance to the driver who only suffered minor injuries despite the severity of the crash.

After finding out he had been included on the King's first Civilian Gallantry List, Mr Walker told the BBC: “It definitely shines a light, there's a lot of stuff that goes on in the ambulance service that is left to the side because it's just the day-to-day but it's nice to be recognized for something.”