The Marine who saved three in M5 fatal crash
A ROYAL Marine rescued a mother and her children from their flaming car after a lorry crash left four dead.
Alex Morgan found the little boy and his sister hanging upside down in their seat belts in the upturned vehicle, with a man believed to be their father dead behind the wheel.
He led the traumatised children away with the help of girlfriend Hayley O’Connor then returned to the wreckage down a bank beside the M5 to help a woman thought to be their mother.
The woman – bleeding from her nose and head – had been trapped in the front passenger seat, where other motorists were using fire extinguishers from their caravans to tackle flames in the engine bay.
A woman and two children were left in a critical condition following the crash, police said. It is unclear whether or not they were the ones helped by Mr Morgan.
He and his girlfriend had been travelling north on the motorway from their Plymouth home to a wedding in Coventry.
They were among the first to reach the crash scene near Almondsbury, Gloucestershire, on Saturday afternoon.
A lorry travelling south apparently suffered a tyre blow-out before colliding with a black car, sending both vehicles through the central reservation and into the path of other vehicles.
Speaking yesterday Mr Morgan said: ‘The lorry was nose down in a ditch on our side of the carriageway and the family car was on its roof halfway down the bank. There were a few others who had already identified a fire in the front of the vehicle, which was badly crumpled, and a couple of people were fetching fire extinguishers from caravans, so I happened to be the first one to the door of the vehicle.
‘I could 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.’
Mr Morgan then freed the boy. He told Somerset Live that when he went back to help the woman it became obvious the man beside her was dead.
He and others worked together to lift the woman out of the wreckage, under the direction of a doctor who had also stopped to help, amid fears the car could explode.
The lorry driver suffered leg injuries but was able to walk from his vehicle. He has reportedly been interviewed under caution.
Police said the truck had struck ‘at least two other vehicles’.
‘I could hear screaming’