M5 carnage: did fireworks cause seven deaths in pile-up?
From the Sunday papers: police investigate Taunton rugby club's display as possible crash cause
BLACK SMOKE from a rugby club fireworks display could have caused Friday's horrific pile-up on the M5, it has emerged. Police are investigating the display after a crash which killed at least seven and injured 51.
The Mail on Sunday reports that the death toll may still rise because some vehicles are so badly burnt that bodies may have not yet been recovered from them. The motorway remains closed to traffic after an accident which was the worst on UK roads for 20 years.
The accident took place at around 8.25pm on Friday – ten minutes after Taunton Rugby Club's annual fireworks display, happening just two fields away, ended.
Witnesses described "a black fog as thick as emulsion" which abruptly descended on the motorway near junction 25, reducing visibility to as little as 50 metres. Lorries jacknifed on the north-bound carriageway and car after car smashed into the resulting pile-up.
The crashed vehicles were engulfed in a huge fireball, in which several vehicles were "burned to the ground", emergency services said. Six lorries and more than 30 cars were ultimately involved.
One expert told the paper that smoke from a fireworks display, or from several nearby bonfires reported by witnesses, could have encouraged a fog to form. Police forensics experts sealed off the rugby club fields for examination.
Amid the chaos, drama teacher Tom Hammil said he had managed to stop his car, avoiding the accident. He left his vehicle to help a woman carry her baby to safety.
Read the report in full at the Mail on Sunday. ·
