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A Bedford County sheriff's investigator drove his unmarked cruiser 11 miles the wrong way down U.S. 29 while drunk before Virginia State Police and two other departments finally forced him to a stop, according to authorities and later court testimony.

Joshua S. Hubbard, 30, was off duty when state police were alerted about 3:17 a.m. on March 27, 2011, that a car was heading south in the northbound lanes of the divided highway between Lynchburg and the town of Altavista, said Corinne Geller, a state police spokeswoman. The vehicle was Hubbard's assigned Dodge Charger.

A newspaper carrier was the first to notice the erratic driving, according to trial testimony. After nearly being hit head-on, she turned around and drove back up the correct side of U.S. 29 with her lights flashing to steer oncoming traffic away from Hubbard's car. Sheriff Mike Brown publicly credited her that same day. A recording of a 911 call reporting the wrong-way driver is attached to this post.

State troopers, Campbell County sheriff's deputies and Altavista police converged on the highway as the car reached 75 to 80 mph, Geller said. Hubbard switched on the cruiser's blue lights several times during the pursuit. Near an exit ramp the Charger made a U-turn into the northbound lanes, and two Altavista patrol cars pulled in front of it to slow it down. The car struck one of them on its rear passenger side on Dearing Ford Road before a state trooper and two deputies pulled in behind it and stopped it.

Brown fired Hubbard later that morning, at 11:45 a.m., after an internal investigation that began shortly after the arrest. Hubbard was charged with driving under the influence and felony eluding police.

Hubbard pleaded guilty to the DUI charge in April 2012 but contested the eluding count, saying he had not knowingly fled. Campbell County Circuit Court Judge John Cook convicted him of eluding in a bench trial. At an October 2012 hearing, Cook called the drive "about as dangerous as you can get" and said, "Eleven miles, it's amazing that no one was injured or killed." He sentenced Hubbard to four years on the two charges but suspended all but four months.

Defense witnesses testified that Hubbard's 16-year-old sister had died in a Pittsylvania County wreck about a month before the arrest and that his mood had swung sharply afterward. Hubbard, who said he had served in Afghanistan and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, testified that he was not taking prescribed medication the night he drank and that he had made a mistake. Prosecutor Rebecca Wetzel called it "a difficult and perplexing sentencing," telling the court that "with great power comes great responsibility" and that Hubbard "behaved in a very irresponsible manner." By the time of sentencing he had taken a job in retail loss prevention.