Madness in the Fast Lane

In 2008, two Swedish sisters, Ursula and Sabina Eriksson, were filmed by BBC cameras throwing themselves into oncoming traffic on a British motorway. The shocking scenes came to national attention in the UK, where they were watched by over seven million viewers on television, along with millions more views on social media. Due to legal restrictions at the time, the story could not previously be shared in its entirety.

Madness in the Fast Lane tells the complete story behind the incident, starting shortly before the cameras captured the motorway footage and continuing through the events of the following three days, during which one of the sisters, Sabina, stabbed a man in the chest and fled the scene of the crime. She later pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility after apparently suffering from an episode of ‘folie à deux’, a rare psychiatric syndrome in which delusional ideas are transmitted between individuals.

The documentary includes perspectives from the police, the Crown Prosecution Service, and a leading criminal psychiatrist, who discuss the complexities of the case and what it took to bring it to trial.