M5 crash police investigating 'black smoke' and fireworks link - The Guardian

Police investigating Britain's worst motorway accident for 20 years have said black smoke, thought to have been caused by a local fireworks display, is forming the focus of their inquiry.

With the scene cleared of all 34 vehicles and the death toll not expected to rise from the seven fatalities confirmed by police on Sunday morning, attention is turning to the cause of the accident on the M5 on Friday night which also injured 51 others.

Eyewitnesses reported seeing fog or smoke over the carriageway before the accident and police are now attributing the likely source of the "smoke bank" to a fireworks display held at Taunton rugby club, close to the motorway. The club was not available for comment but it previously said the display was over by 8.15pm, around 10 minutes before the pile-up occurred.

The incident commander, 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, that actually 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."

The pitches at the rugby club where the fireworks display took place were cordoned off by police on Sunday afternoon and Bangham said that witnesses at the event were being interviewed. "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," he added.

One of those who had expressed concerns about the smoke from the display was pastor Gary Birch, who led prayers for the dead on Sunday morning at Creech St Michael Baptist church. Birch said on Saturday: "I remember thinking: 'I hope the smoke doesn't cause a problem for the motorway.' Perhaps it did, we don't know. But there was certainly a huge fireworks display – 15 minutes [of] full-on constant display – right beside the motorway and it was generating a lot of smoke."

The southbound carriageway on the M5 was reopened on Sunday evening, though the northbound carriageway remains closed. Police said a 40-metre stretch of road was damaged by fuel spillage from vehicles and a stretch of 60 metres was damaged by intense fire.

Formal identification of the victims has yet to take place. Leading prayers for them at his church, close to the site of the accident, Birch said: "At the start of the service we had some special prayers and thoughts. We've also got a special service of thanksgiving this afternoon for people to remember their loved ones. It was already planned but it will now involve some remembrance of those who have lost their lives in this.

"The emergency workers and the first responders will be the people we're going to know, so we're thinking of them as well." A minute's silence was held at the carnival statue in the nearby town of Bridgwater at 12pm and prayers were also said during mass at Taunton Catholic church. Bangham had earlier expressed his relief that the death toll had not increased overnight on Saturday, as had been feared, saying: "Our worst fears have not been confirmed."

Musgrove Park hospital said it was still treating 12 victims of the pile-up, while four of the casualties it had received had now been discharged.

Bangham urged anyone with footage of the incident to contact the police and not to upload it on to the internet.