M5 crash: ‘We sat there and heard the thud of cars’

EYEWITNESSES have described how a multi-vehicle crash on the M5 exploded into a massive fireball, with flames shooting into the foggy night air at the scene of one of the worst motorway collisions in memory.

Last night, police officers continued to pick through the mangled wreckage of the accident scene to recover the bodies of travellers trapped in their cars.

A teacher caught up in the fatal crash, which killed at least seven people, described last night how he carried a baby to safety amid the carnage of cars ploughing into wreckage at 70mph.

Thomas Hamell, 25, said he hit a “wall of fog like emulsion paint” and suddenly saw a jack-knifed lorry loom into view. His girlfriend Katherine Lane, 24, and father George Hamell, 56, were in the Renault Megane, which had just joined the motorway on Friday evening. He was able to stop short of the pile-up as another driver sped by at 70mph and ploughed into the lorry.

“We are all lucky to be alive. If we had been one metre to the right, we would not be here to tell the tale,” he said. He praised paramedics, saying their efforts were “superhuman”, but he also described the cries of motorists trapped in their cars as flames engulfed the scene.

“It was so foggy. Suddenly, as we came through it, there was like a wall of lorries. One jackknifed in front of us. We managed to stop because we had just joined the motorway and were not going too fast.

“We sat there and heard the thud of cars, one after another, hitting each other and thought we would be next. We could hear people screaming in their cars. It was utter carnage.”

Hamell said he stopped his girlfriend getting out to help anyone because it would have meant certain death.

In an incident which probably saved their lives, two other lorries jack-knifed behind them, creating what was effectively a safe area. This enabled the three to leave the car and go to the aid of a shocked mother with a young baby.

As they left amid the chaos of cars still hitting each other, a potentially lethal piece of debris shot over Hamell’s head. “It went over my head as I was carrying the lady’s baby. We just carried on to a safe distance about 20 metres away,” he said. “We were incredibly lucky. The woman who gave me her child, her car was wiped out.”

The 34-vehicle crash, which involved several articulated lorries, killed seven people and injured at least 51 more. The death toll is expected to rise as additional bodies are recovered.

Other eyewitnesses described what they encountered as they approached the scene of the disaster. Paul O’Connor, who was travelling to Plymouth, described seeing those first on the scene attempting to help some of the wounded.

He said: “I thought it was something to do with bonfire night and then realised it was something quite bad.

“I have never seen anything like that. I could see people lying on the side of the road. It was quite disturbing really. I saw two people lying down and there were quite a lot of people around them. The emergency services were doing what they could. I don’t know if they were OK.”

Former firefighter Simon Bruford, 38, from Williton in Somerset, who was driving south, added: “I could see the flames from quite a way back.

“I spent 18 years in the Somerset fire service and have seen a lot nasty things, but that was horrific.”

Local resident Bev Davis heard the accident from her home close to the motorway, and described huge plumes of rising into the night sky. “All we could hear was the sound of a horn and then the flames got so high so quickly and the noise was horrific,” she said.

“There were explosions of what I think must have been tyres – it was as though the fireworks were starting again, but we knew they had finished.

“There must have been 200m-worth of fire – plumes of smoke were going up and everything was red.”

Assistant chief constable Anthony Bangham, of Avon and Somerset Constabulary, said a major incident inquiry would be carried out. “This is a horrific scene,” he said. “For a motorway incident, this is about as big as it gets.

“This is a hugely complex operation because of the scale of vehicles and people involved.”

“All vehicles will need to be removed from the scene for forensic examination and this, of course, takes time.

“Seven people are confirmed to have died as a result of this tragic incident and we do believe there could be more deaths.

“Our thoughts are with those who may have lost loved ones as a result.”

Weather forecasters said conditions had been misty and any nearby bonfires could have made things worse.

Sixteen people being treated in Musgrove Park Hospital yesterday were said to be stable. None of their injuries are thought to be life-threatening.

A further 26 casualties were taken to Yeovil District Hospital, but more than 20 were released yesterday afternoon.