Police investigating a motorway crash which killed seven people are concentrating their inquiries on a firework display next to the road shortly before the collision.
Assistant chief constable Anthony Bangham said: “What I am now able to say this afternoon is that our main line of inquiry has now moved towards the event that was on the side of the carriageway and we do believe that while there was fog and it was difficult conditions in the area.
“From witness evidence there was very significant smoke across the carriageway that in effect caused a bank similar to a fog bank, which was very distracting and very difficult to drive through. “We will be doing everything we can to find out as quickly as we’re able to what’s behind that.”
Witnesses at the fireworks display - held at Taunton Rugby Club - were being interviewed, he said, adding that accountability was “clearly something we will look at.”
He went on: “We believe from the witnesses and from what we’re being told that it was smoke and not fog.
“The vehicles and people who were entering into the smoke bank have just described it as being impossible to drive through and that of course causing them to brake.
“So we know there was braking and then there was the impacts.” The rugby club has said previously that its display was over by 8.15pm, before the crash happened at 8.25pm on the M5. The motorway remains closed in both directions between junctions 24 and 25 today following the incident, which took place in wet and foggy conditions on the northbound carriageway. Police said they expected to be able to reopen it at some point overnight in readiness for traffic travelling north and southbound in morning.
All vehicles have now been removed from the motorway and repairs are being carried out to the road surface which was damaged after several vehicles caught fire. Seven people died in the crash which involved 34 vehicles and left 51 people injured.
The of these have “life changing injuries” according to police. As officials attempt to piece together exactly what caused Friday night’s multiple crash, tales of bravery by members of the public caught up in the chaos have emerged.
Thomas Hamell (25) who was just seconds away from avoiding the crash, told how he carried a baby to safety as cars ploughed into the debris at 70mph. The teacher from Wells in Somerset had just joined the motorway in a Renault Megane with his girlfriend Katherine Lane (24), and father George Hamell (56) when they came to a “wall of lorries” - one of which jacknifed in front of them.
Two other lorries jacknifed behind them, creating a safe area that enabled them to leave the car and go to the aid of a shocked mother with a young baby. “We just carried on to a safe distance about 20 metres away,” he said. “We were incredibly lucky.
The woman who gave her child, her car was wiped out. It was utter carnage." Emergency workers described the crash as "the worst road traffic collision anyone can remember". The owner of a local fireworks company told The Mail on Sunday he had turned down the opportunity to stage a display at the rugby club two years ago because of safety concerns.
“It’s a very difficult site. My concern straight away was the distance from the motorway,” he said. The rugby club’s secretary has confirmed it is helping police with their inquiries. Mr Bangham said some members of the public had shown “real bravery” in arriving quickly on the scene and trying to help others.
“The intensity of the fire - it was a fireball on the carriageway - made it incredibly difficult for people to approach,” he said. “People did their very best.” A “comprehensive and thorough” investigation into what caused the tragedy will now be carried out, he added.
Agencies