Motorists faced delays of over six hours and 14-mile queues on the approach to Burnham-On-Sea after a tanker crash on the M5 closed a large section of the motorway on Tuesday (May 5th).
A crash between a car and fuel tanker at about 4.30am closed the M5 between junction 22 near Burnham-On-Sea and junction 23 near Bridgwater, spilling a large quantity of fuel.
After a long operation to recover the tanker and the remove the fuel, the southbound carriageway finally re-opened at 7.15pm. The northbound carriageway re-opened earlier in the afternoon, causing long delays on roads around the area as motoriists sought diversions.
Two people were taken to hospital after the lorry hit the central reservation, travelled across the three lanes and ended up on the hard shoulder, causing damage to the barrier. A car then hit the side of the tanker. Delays of 5-6 hours were reported by drivers with queues of up to 14 miles.
A spokesperson for the South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SWASFT) said: “We were called at 4:44am on Tuesday 5th May to a road traffic collision near Burnham-On-Sea.”
“We sent two double-crewed land ambulances, an operations officer, and the hazardous area response team to the scene. We conveyed two patients by land ambulances to Musgrove Park Hospital.”
Clarke Hobbs, operations manager in the control room at National Highways, said: “Unfortunately the petrol tanker was fully loaded, which meant there were 32,000 litres of petrol on board.”
“That needed to be pumped out into a second tanker before the recovery could took place so the motorway was closed with significant delays in the area.”
The motorway closure caused heavy congestion along the diversion route on the A38 southbound at Edithmead to near Dunball where it joins the A39 just before junction 23 of the M5.
Meanwhile, a scheduled closure of the A38 in Highbridge was cancelled due to the crash. “Due to the incident earlier on the M5, our works on Isleport Roundabout were suspended for the night. Works will start again on Wednesday 6th May,” said a council spokesman.
