Marine tells how he helped pull children from wreckage after M-way horror crash

A MARINE has described how he helped to pull two children from the wreckage of a crash in which four people died.

A woman and two children remain in hospital with lifethreatening injuries after a lorry collided with oncoming traffic between junctions 16 and 14 on the M5 in south Gloucestershire on Saturday.

Alex Morgan, a marine based in Plymouth, said he had been travelling to a wedding in Coventry when he saw the lorry nose down in a ditch and a car on its roof.

He said: “On approaching the vehicle, I could already hear two children screaming and when looking inside they were both in the back suspended upside down from their seat belts.

“They were both fully conscious with no initial signs of serious bleeding or injury, so I unclipped the little girl’s seat belt and carried her out.”

He then pulled a young boy from the car and later helped to remove an injured woman from the vehicle.

Avon and Somerset Police confirmed four people had died in the crash, which happened when the lorry smashed through the central reservation.

The lorry driver was taken to hospital to be checked over as a precaution.

Cardiologist Amer Hamed, who was in a car travelling “10 to 20 seconds behind” the crash, said: “There was a lorry involved and at least two other cars. One was absolutely destroyed and another had flipped over.”

Along with other medically trained motorists, he stopped to help an injured woman.

Supt Simon Ellis said: “Emergency service personnel have been working tirelessly at the scene in harrowing conditions and I’d like to praise them for the work they’ve done and are still doing.

“I’d also like to thank the members of the public who courageously went to the aid of those involved in this collision.”