A motorist who travelled the wrong way along the M5 between Pawlett and Burnham-On-Sea caused two accidents and left the motorway closed for more than two hours on Friday night (December 22nd).
Police, fire crews and paramedics rushed to the southbound carriageway of the M5 at 8pm after the Highways Authority confirmed a car had travelled the wrong way along the fog-bound motorway with no headlights.
The motorist caused two separate accidents – the first involved four vehicles and left one person trapped. Burnham fire crews extracted the casualty by removing the roof of the car.
In the second crash, fire fighters from Bridgwater found one vehicle had collided with a barrier further down the M5, but no persons were trapped. Incredibly, there were beleived to be no serious casualties in either accident.
A fire brigade spokesman told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “A vehicle entered the M5 at junction 23 of the M5 at Dunball and then proceeded the wrong way along the southbound carriageway, without any headlights, causing a one-vehicle accident and then a second multi-vehicle crash.”
“Burnham crews removed a trapped casualty, who was later conveyed to hospital via ambulance, and also made other vehicles safe. There were further casualties suffering minor injuries which the Brigade helped by administering first aid and distributing blankets due to the drop in temperature.”
The M5 was closed for two and a half hours and was re-opened at 10.20pm, leading to large numbers of Christmas travellers being forced to use the A38 through Highbridge instead. It was the second accident along the motorway in just a few hours.
