The M5 motorway has fully re-opened after a fatal crash that left a man and a woman dead and four people injured on Thursday (September 13th).
Police, ambulance and fire crews were called to the southbound carriageway of the motorway, a mile north of Taunton, at 8.30am where a lorry and six cars had collided.
Long queues formed southbound along the M5 to Burnham-On-Sea. The carriageway was closed all day by police between junctions 24 at Huntworth and 25 for Taunton until around 8pm when it re-opened.
Police said a female driver and male passenger from another car had died at the scene while two women were seriously injured and taken to Bristol’s Southmead Hospital.
Insp Frazer Davey, from Avon and Somerset Police, said: “I’m very sad to report two people have lost their lives at the scene.”
“There’s been a number of other people injured who have been taken to hospital.”
“An investigation of this nature will take some time and I’d like to apologise to the number of people caught up in the tailbacks.”
The northbound carriageway reopened at lunchtime after being closed for about three hours and the southbound carriageway is due to re-open this evening to allow the investigation to bne completed and any damage to the road surface to be repaired.