Motorway pile-up linked to fireworks display

EMERGENCY crews scoured burnt-out vehicles yesterday following one of Britain’s worst ever motorway pile-ups that triggered a huge fireball and killed seven people.

Two days after 34 vehicles crashed in foggy and wet conditions on the M5 motorway near Taunton, Somerset, rescue teams were still combing through charred metal littering the carriageway.

Emergency services said 51 people had been injured in the accident that happened on Friday night and warned the death toll was likely to rise.

Investigators have stepped up efforts to determine the cause of the crash, indicating that as well as the wet and foggy conditions, a nearby fireworks display might have played a role in causing the pile-up.

The huge crash sparked explosions and an inferno, reducing vehicles to cinders and leaving twisted, fire-blackened metal scattered across the M5.

Footage taken at the scene showed motorists risking their own lives amid the flames to prise open vehicle doors and rescue people trapped inside.

Witnesses described hellish scenes, with multiple explosions and towering flames sending a pall of acrid smoke into the night sky.

“We could hear people screaming in their cars. It was utter carnage,” said motorist Thomas Hamell, 25, who narrowly avoided the chaos as he came to an abrupt halt next to a jack-knifed lorry at the edge of the crash site. “We sat there and heard the thud of cars, one after another, hitting each other and thought we would be next.”

Assistant chief constable Anthony Bangham of the Avon and Somerset Constabulary confirmed at least seven people died in the pile-up, with 51 casualties.

He said 34 vehicles were involved in the accident, “many of which are burnt — and burnt literally to the ground”.

Edmund King, president of the Automobile Association, said it was Britain’s worst traffic accident in two decades, the last comparable incident being a 51-car crash on the M4 motorway in March 1991 in which 10 people died.