GEOFFREY Counsell was charged with manslaughter after a horrific pile-up cause seven people to die on the M5.
The terrifying incident will be examined in Channel 5’s The Pile Up: Death on the Motorway, as well as Geoffrey’s fight to clear his name.
Seven people died in the M5 crashAFP
A horror crash
On November 4, 2011, 34 vehicles, including Geoffrey’s, were caught in a pile-up on the northbound carriageway on the M5.
The incident took place near junction 5, 2.2 miles northeast of Taunton.
Soon, the vehicles began to catch fire and several exploded, as flames rose up to 20 feet high.
51 people were injured and seven people were confirmed to have died.
An urgent rescue mission, to extract people from their cars, vans and lorries, began.
15 fire engines attended the incident, as victims were taken to Musgrove Park Hospital, Yeovil District Hospital and Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital.
Much of the reporting of the incident focused on the fact that Geoffrey’s car contained fireworks.
He said that he was transporting the explosives to Taunton Rugby Club for Guy Fawkes Night.
The ensuing investigation
The road was cleared by November 6 and was reopened by 5pm that same day.
40 metres of the road was damaged by fuel spillage and up to 60 metres were damaged by intense fire and explosions.
Tony and Pamela Adams sadly died in the crashWayne Perry – The Sun
By November 8, the seven people who died in the incident were named.
Lorry drivers Terry Brice and Kye Thomas sadly passed away, alongside father and daughter Michael and Maggie Barton, as well as grandparents Anthony and Pamela Adams.
A man named Malcolm Beacham also died.
An inquest was opened to determine how the incident took place, with suspicions initially being directed at Geoffrey Counsel.
On October 12, 2012, he was charged with seven counts of manslaughter.
Those charges were dropped in January 2013 and he was next faced with a single health and safety charge.
In December 2013, that charge was dropped too.
By April 2014, the West Somerset coroner concluded that the firework smoke may have contributed to the incident, but it was not the lead cause.
Instead, dense fog was to blame.
Death on the motorway
The horrifying incident will be explored in the Channel 5 documentary The Pile Up: Death on the Motorway.
It features exclusive interviews with detectives involved in the case, as well as eyewitness accounts.
Viewers can catch the episode when it airs at 10pm on March 19, 2025.
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