Huge accident on M5

MrMoonX said:
wow who knew ocuk had so many qualified crash investigators in GD :rolleyes:
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I was just going to type the same thing.

There was a 'funny' interview on GMTV just now with a family.
Adrian Childs kept asking about the fog but the woman driver kept avoiding the question.
He then asked about it being black smoke fog and she just went into a talk about vehicles on fire completely avoiding what he was tring to probe at.
 
I think there are clearly many contributing factors to the accident & the Police won't reveal the full details of their investigation until its finished.

If the Rugby club is found to have caused a smoke cloud, I wonder whether some kind of manslaughter charge will be levied at them. I know there has been talk of investigating what permission they had for a display, but I've not seen that any news organisations have uncovered anything about it yet.

Ultimately if it has contributed, I see a change in the law coming to ban such displays or bonfires in the vicinity of motorways and major roads.
 
MrMoonX said:
wow who knew ocuk had so many qualified crash investigators in GD :rolleyes:
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Yea, not like its simple human nature to discuss and have opinions on the cause of major events. The exact same conversations will go on this morning in offices and pubs all over the UK.
 
Nexus said:
I think there are clearly many contributing factors to the accident & the Police won't reveal the full details of their investigation until its finished.

If the Rugby club is found to have caused a smoke cloud, I wonder whether some kind of manslaughter charge will be levied at them. I know there has been talk of investigating what permission they had for a display, but I've not seen that any news organisations have uncovered anything about it yet.

Ultimately if it has contributed, I see a change in the law coming to ban such displays or bonfires in the vicinity of motorways and major roads.
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Looks like they are going after the Rugby club:

Assistant Chief Constable Anthony Bangham said: "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."

Witnesses at the Taunton Rugby Club fireworks display were being interviewed, he said, adding that accountability was "clearly something we will look at".

He went on: "We believe from the witnesses and from what we're being told that it was smoke and not fog.
"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."

The police investigation will look at how the fireworks event was organised, what permission was given for it and what was and was not meant to be happening there, Mr Bangham said.
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The talk of accountability suggests that they are looking at the people responsible for the fireworks event and the smoke it caused, they said they are now conducting both road policing and criminal investigations.
 
you have to ask the question tho,

are they just looking at scape-goating the fireworks display as its easier to blame.

surly its the ability of the drivers to be able to drive in those conditions that is at question.
 
Thought I heard someone telling a reporter about fireworks goig off in one of the cars in the accident as well. That kind of thing would add to the smoke in the area of the accident quite a lot.
 
stuman said:
you have to ask the question tho,

are they just looking at scape-goating the fireworks display as its easier to blame.

surly its the ability of the drivers to be able to drive in those conditions that is at question.
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Given that one witness (who claims it was fog, not smoke) said it was like someone had thrown emulsion over his windscreen, I'm not sure how scapegoating the drivers for not being able to drive in those conditions is going to help. Obviously I don't know if it was smoke or fog but driving in really thick fog is easily the most scared I've ever been in my car.

I'd be surprised if they could charge the fireworks company unless they did something really stupid.
 
simulatorman said:
Careless driving, blame game, following procedure. Your guess is as good as anybody’s at this point in time.
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Isn't the criminal bit from the possible negligence of the rugby, and that they may have been the major factor in the cause of the accident?
 
alx said:
Isn't the criminal bit from the possible negligence of the rugby, and that they may have been the major factor in the cause of the accident?
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It may well be that but there may be other factors. We'll just have to wait and see.
 
What's going on with the press? Are they trying to pin the blame on this rugby club or something? Fog or not, it was a bonfire, not a forest fire.
 
Jonny69 said:
What's going on with the press? Are they trying to pin the blame on this rugby club or something? Fog or not, it was a bonfire, not a forest fire.
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The club has said there wasn't even a bonfire - it was just a fireworks display.
 
stuman said:
you have to ask the question tho,

are they just looking at scape-goating the fireworks display as its easier to blame.

surly its the ability of the drivers to be able to drive in those conditions that is at question.
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The is no ability to drive in a black vortex that renders even fog lights useless, this is why we don't let blind people drive ;)


anticonscience said:
Can ayone explain why this is now a criminal investigation?
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Because its looking like it was caused by the fireworks display nearby, which means the organisers negligence (no sane person would pass off a method statement/risk assessment for letting off a load of explosives generating smoke next to a busy motorway, hence why pyrotechnics have refused to work the site in the past) caused people to die and so its being investigated.
 
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I am suprised more has not been made of the the causes of the explosions/fireball following the collision. I assume it isnt normal to expect such devastation if a lorry carrying gas cylinders is involved in an incident?
 
Dimple said:
As much as I completely hate fireworks I have never seen them cause a blanket of black smoke before :confused:
Or perhaps it is there but invisible until it hits fog.
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Never seen a professional display?

Also as has been noted before, if it was foggy, the smoke will have just made it even worse.
 
I've never seen a blanket of black smoke from fireworks either. Nor from a bonfire, not unless they were burning tyres and huge amounts of plastic :confused:

Sorry, it just doesn't stack up to me.
 
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