Anyone near Taunton on the M5 last night?

[Sysman]

Not stuff that's renowned for creating fireballs.

No indeed. That diesel van which burst into flames after a crash in an episode of Emmerdale long ago just didn't seem right.

And yes, in my pyromaniac youth I did try putting a match to diesel.

However, a strong douse of burning petrol will be enough to set it going. We put old engine oil on bonfires to get rid of it many moons ago, and once it got hot enough it burnt cleanly.

[Sysman]

we get a lot of stubble smoke in the summer

Beat me to it. It can fill your eyes with tears too if you have your windows open, which doesn't help visibility a lot.

I thought they'd tried to ban stubble burning?

[russell]

I rekon it's alkieda, they planted a bomb in the Iceland truck.

[Sysman]

Much easier to try and sue some Rugger Club for holding a Bonfire, than holding to account a considerable number of rash drivers, many of whom have paid the price for their folly with their lives. "Where there is blame, there's a claim!"

Unfortunatley true.

Welcome to the blame and claim culture.

[PAH]

It is up to drivers to drive to conditions. If you are approaching a section of road that has poor visibility then slow down before you enter it, not anchor up once you are in it.

As that section of motorway is unlit I'm not sure how easy it would be to detect a wall of fog and/or smoke up ahead in time to slow down enough, unless you could see the lights of a vehicle in the distance suddenly disappear.

Those arriving after the initial collision may have been caught out by bad circumstances.

[gingerjedi]

I suppose it depends exactly how close it was - a fire 100m away is daft but 1/4 mile away, it's pretty weird you'd get a proper bank of smoke.

Google maps


Looks pretty close to me.

[TimberWolf]

As that section of motorway is unlit I'm not sure how easy it would be to detect a wall of fog and/or smoke up ahead in time to slow down enough, unless you could see the lights of a vehicle in the distance suddenly disappear.

Those arriving after the initial collision may have been caught out by bad circumstances.

One of the drivers caught up in it said that the car in front suddenly disappeared, and that he had remarked at how odd it was before ploughing into the car that had disappeared.

Looking at the photo, two cars appear to have been spun 180 degrees to face the wrong way. I expect they'll be able to piece together what happened from witness testimony. Be interesting to know the wind direction.

[PAH]

Be interesting to know the wind direction.

Yep, that will be crucial for determining if smoke was a possibility, though a witness said there was no discernible breeze, causing the smoke to linger.

Someone else attending the firework display said the smoke was going towards north west roughly along the line of the railway, so if right would make it going away from the motorway.

Of course he may have said it wrong and meant the wind was northwesterly, so moving toward the motorway roughly where the incident happened.

[Arturo Bassick]

From the reports in the press (which are a little sensational and garbled) I am reading about "black smoke or fog" which is then being claimed as firework smoke. I would suggest that this black stuff is actually caused by one of the vehicles already on fire.

Either way it doesn't matter. Drivers should have slowed down if they could not see, even pulled over on to hard shoulder till it cleared. Reading some of the reports the drivers "oh look, black fog" and carried on into it!

[gingerjedi]

Yep, that will be crucial for determining if smoke was a possibility, though a witness said there was no discernible breeze, causing the smoke to linger.

Someone else attending the firework display said the smoke was going towards north west roughly along the line of the railway, so if right would make it going away from the motorway.

Of course he may have said it wrong and meant the wind was northwesterly, so moving toward the motorway roughly where the incident happened.

The wind was North Westerly blowing the smoke South East towards the M5 (the train track is south of the rugby club), I know the wind was generally NW all weekend because I was checking Windguru for my area (20 miles north) as I wanted to go land sailing.