This is the heart-stopping moment a white van man leans out of his window to grab a drink from a passenger in a second vehicle as they hurtle down a motorway at nearly 60MPH.
The two vans came within just inches of crashing into each other as they drove along the busy M5 at rush hour.
Footage of the terrifying stunt was captured on the dash-camera by a chauffeur who was driving behind the two vans at junction 3 near Halesowen, West Mids.
The terrifying 23-second clip shows the two vehicles veering across two lanes of traffic while the passenger of one van reaches out of his window to pass a bottle to the driver.
Paul Donovan, 58, a part-time chauffeur and commercial photographer filmed the incident as he drove home to Bromsgrove, Worcs., at 6pm on September 24.
The dad-of-two said: “I thought it was a crazy and frankly a stupid thing to do.
“I was on my way home. I do a lot of driving as part of my job and I see a lot of stupid things on an almost daily basis.
“You almost become immune to the stupidity, but this was particularly dangerous and it could have ended really badly.
“I really expected the vans to come together and for one of them to have his or her arms crushed. It was quite scary.
“At first I thought the van on the right was over-taking the larger van in the middle lane but suddenly it drew level and I saw an arm reach out of the smaller van.
“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, if the vans had collided the man would have certainly broken his arm if not caused a major accident.
“I kept the camera on them because I thought it might help catch them. It was motorway madness.”
Police are now examining the footage and said they will be contacting the owners of the vehicles after tracing them through their number plates.
Road safety campaigners condemned the drivers, saying they should be punished for risking lives.
Philip Goose, senior community engagement officer at the road safety charity Brake said:
“The video clearly shows that these two drivers were putting other road users and themselves in danger of being killed or seriously injured.
“Driving is the most dangerous thing we do on a daily basis and it deserves our full attention.
“Every day, five people die on our roads and a further 61 are seriously injured. This kind of irresponsible behaviour on our roads needs to be punished, using the full force of the law.”
Chief Inspector Jared White, from the Central Motorway Police Group, said: “Passing items between vehicles while they are moving at speed increases the risk of a collision and is therefore not only dangerous to those inside the vehicles concerned, but also to other road users.
“With regards to a video which appears to show two vans being driven in this way on the M5 on 24 September, we are currently examining the footage to see if any offences have been committed and we will be contacting the registered keepers of the vehicles about the matter.”
