TWO brave police officers have been awarded for their efforts to prevent a drunk driver causing further chaos after he drove up the wrong way of the M4 in Reading.

Terrifying footage shows the car travelling in the wrong direction against traffic before a police car drives towards it in an attempt to stop the vehicle.

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PC Matthew Robson and PC Matthew Hunt had to use their car to ram the driver’s vehicle to stop it as he careered up the motorway at speeds over 60 mph towards oncoming traffic.

The two police officers, who put their lives on the line, have now won a Thames Valley Police Federation Bravery Award.

After reports came in, officers joined the motorway and implemented a ‘rolling road’ tactic to keep traffic safely behind them.

With blue lights flashing the officers knew that if the driver chose to ignore them, then a potentially fatal collision with them or with other road users was inevitable.

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After driving for a few minutes, headlights approached the officers from around the slight bend of the motorway, but the driver instead decided to speed up.

The officers knew the only way to prevent a serious and potentially fatal accident was to use their training and ram the driver's vehicle with theirs, and as they did this, the van came to an abrupt halt and span off the motorway.

The driver then attempted to start the van up again to drive off.

Both officers could see he was intoxicated, and he even tried to make a citizen’s arrest of PC Hunt.

Once the man had calmed down the officers made the arrest and opened the motorway up again safely.

PC Hunt said: "When they come towards you you hope - and you assume - because they normally do, they’re going to stop, but he didn’t stop.

"He's still coming towards us and his speed is mirroring that on the opposite carriageway so 70-80 miles an hour.

"It was fast enough for it to be worrying.

"It became apparent he wasn't going to stop, and we had a very small window of how we're going to deal with it.

"We are trained specifically for this scenario, so we knew what to do.

"As he came through, he had to be stopped, and we just rammed it.

"Fortunately, it all worked out quite nicely, but I’ve been doing this job for 19 years and I’ve never been scared in it but I’m not too ashamed to say I was.

"For a couple of minutes there, I was pretty worried."

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Both officers said it was very humbling to be honoured with a bravery award.

"At the end of the day we are the police and if we don’t step out and do things like this, then who will?" PC Robson said.

"It's a case of everyone else who we work with I know would have done the same thing.

"To be nominated for it is very surreal and very humbling."

Thames Valley Police Federation Chairman Craig O’Leary said the officers’ actions that night were exemplary.

"PC Hunt and Robson put themselves right in the front line to prevent a serious and potentially tragic collision from happening," he said.

"It must have been extremely harrowing waiting for this driver to come at them – especially as he seemed to pick up speed - but they followed their training to the letter and showed great courage to put their own safety on the line to protect the public.

"We're very proud of them."

PCs Hunt and Robson will attend an awards ceremony in the Thames Valley Policing area on Thursday, March 5, where an overall winner will be announced.

The awards are in association with JRM Mortgage Solutions. The hashtag for the event is #TVPFedBravery.