The Muslim peer Lord Ahmed was among those involved in a series of car accidents on Christmas Day, in which at least six people died and more than a dozen were injured.

Lord Ahmed, who flew to Sudan recently to negotiate the release of the British teacher Gillian Gibbons, sustained serious facial injuries and suffered severe shock after his gold Jaguar crashed into another car on the M1 on Tuesday evening.

The second car had broken down in the fast lane near Rotherham at 6.20pm and hit the central crash barrier. It spun around and ended up facing the wrong way on the southbound carriageway near Thorpe Hesley.

The 28-year-old Slovakian driver and a passenger managed to reach the hard shoulder but police believe that the driver then tried to dodge speeding traffic to get back to his car to retrieve his mobile phone. He was hit and died instantly.

At least four other vehicles were involved in the pile-up and three other people were injured.

Lord Ahmed confirmed yesterday that he had been behind the wheel at the time of the crash. He said: “I was just driving along when I saw a red Audi facing the wrong way. It was absolutely horrendous, but I don’t want to talk about it.”

Lord Ahmed was appointed to the House of Lords in 1998. He has lived in Rotherham since he was a child and, after the accident, was treated at the district hospital.

Also in Rotherham, a 53-year-old man was run down and killed by a 68-year-old driver only minutes after leaving an NHS mental health unit.

In Cornwall, a 61-year-old grandmother was left seriously injured after becoming a hit-and-run victim while out walking with her four-month-old grandson near Penzance.

The baby was left with cuts and bruises but the woman had to be airlifted to hospital and remains in a critical condition after surgery. A 33-year-old driver has since been arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving.

In Redhill, Surrey, a man, also believed to be in his 50s, was hit by a car on the hard shoulder of the M23. He died later in hospital. An 18-year-old man was severely injured after being struck by a car as he crossed the A80 outside Glasgow in the early hours of Christmas morning.

A 23-year-old man was killed and four people, including two children, were injured in a car crash on the A5 in North Wales at a notorious danger spot on the edge of Snowdonia. The children were 8 months and 2 years.

In Cirencester, Gloucestershire, a driver sustained serious injuries after colliding with another car that was believed to be going the wrong way down the A417.

The residents of a thatched cottage near Crockenwell, Devon, were woken up in the early hours of Christmas morning by a silver Nissan ploughing into the second floor of their house. The two occupants were trapped for two hours and were later treated at Exeter hospital.

Yesterday, a man saw his brother killed in a car crash just yards in front of him. The young man was riding a motorbike when his brother, who was at the wheel of a kit-built sports car, lost control of the vehicle and it crashed into a lamppost on the A217 road at Banstead, Surrey.

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