04-08-2025
Terrifying moment lorry crashes through central reservation and towards incoming traffic on motorway
This is the terrifying moment a lorry crashes through the central reservation and towards incoming traffic on a busy motorway.
The heavy vehicle careered across the M5 before speeding the wrong way down the road, narrowly missing a £100k Porsche.
Peter Stone, 55, had been driving home from a family trip to St Agnes, Cornwall in his Porsche 911 at around 12.30pm on Friday when the truck started heading straight at him.
Incredibly, no one was injured in the chaos but the motorway was closed in both directions for just over an hour.
Now hair-raising footage has emerged of the incident which Mr Stone claims left him 'two seconds from serious injury'.
The clip, taken from his dashcam, sees Mr Stone driving in the outside lane with multiple cars in close proximity.
Out of nowhere, a bright yellow lorry comes racing across the central reservation, smashing the protective rail, and onto his side of the M5.
Kicking up a vast cloud of dust as it hurtles along, the truck bumps agressively at speed in the wrong direction.
The 4x4 in front has just enough time to make a slight adjustment and avoid the lorry, while Mr Stone himself managed to make a dramatic lurch into the middle lane to miss the heavy vehicle by a split second.
Chunks of debris are left in the lorry's wake while a shot from the rear view dashcam shows cars behind Mr Stone narrowly avoiding the vehicle.
As he passes the truck's entry point in his Porsche, Mr Stone can see the significant damage inflicted on the rail in the central reservation.
The father-of-two said: 'It literally came out of nowhere. I think I had less than two seconds to move before getting flattened by the tipper driver.
'It was quite difficult, my car is quite low down and the black car [in front] sort of obscured my view.
'I only really saw the truck - luckily it was yellow, so your peripheral vision can pick up bright colours and stuff.
'The black car moved out in front of me, I had a white motorhome beside me and I managed to go in between them.'
The driver, who runs a fleet of vehicles for a waste company and is from Reading, added that it was 'remarkable' nobody was hurt.
'It was just a reflex reaction really,' he said, 'I'm very surprised no one actually smashed into the truck.
'I did speak to the transport company because I wanted to make sure no one was injured before offering to share the footage.
'I pulled over straight away and called 999, assuming there was going to be some serious injuries.
'Fortunately, as far as I'm aware, no one was injured - which is quite remarkable.'
Mr Stone captured the scene of destruction on his front and rear dashcams, which were installed by the dealership when he purchased the vehicle back in December.
The father, who has an HGV licence himself, said: 'You've seen videos of trucks crossing central reservations, but for it to happen straight in front of you is bizarre.
'Until I reviewed the video I hadn't even realised I was in the fast lane. In my recall I thought I must have been in the middle lane, there's no way I could have been in the third lane.
'I've had two nights of uninterrupted sleep replaying it in my mind, trying to come to terms with basically probably being two seconds from serious injury or even worse.'
A National Highways spokesperson said no serious injuries had been reported following the crash.
Police and ambulance attended the crash which caused the M5 to be closed in both directions for just over an hour, with lanes one and two reopening at around 1.30pm.
Repairs took place overnight and the road fully reopened at around 3.30am on Saturday morning, the spokesperson added.
Devon & Cornwall Police and South West Ambulance Service were contacted for comment.
A spokesperson for the South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust said: 'We were called at 12:20hrs on Friday 01 August to a road traffic collision near Bradninch.
'We sent two double-crewed land ambulances, an operations officer, a first responder and the hazardous area response team to the scene.'
