Hero Marine pulled two screaming children and their mum from M5 horror crash
The Royal Marine who was the first on the scene of a horrific accident on the M5 has spoken about the harrowing aftermath of the crash.
Alex Morgan, 27, described seeing “body parts scattered everywhere” when his girlfriend Hayley O’Connor, a sales office manager, stopped suddenly in front of the accident in Gloucestershire on Saturday.
The Royal Marine leapt straight out of the vehicle after seeing a “dark” car lying upside down in the motorway and pulled two screaming children and their mother from one of the cars.
Alex said: “For work you get a bit of experience and training in first aid, but this was by far the worst road traffic collision that I have seen in this country.
“It was harrowing. I’ve seen some dark things during my time, but you never expect to see something like this in the UK.
“That’s what was so shocking – that it came from nowhere, and that it was so close to home.
“I was texting at the time, and Hayley just suddenly put the brakes on and put her hand over her mouth as we came up to the wreckage.
“She was stunned.”
Describing how he leapt into action as soon as the car stopped, Alex went on: “For me, instinct just kicked in straightaway.
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“I was the first one to go over to the car to see what was going on, because the accident had only really just happened at that point.
“The children in the back seat were in floods of tears. They were clearly very scared about what was happening.
“I couldn’t put a figure on how old they are, but they were certainly young children. I would say that the girl was ten-ish, and the lad about 11.
“We took the decision to get them out of the car straight away, so that they could get some treatment, and to calm them down.
“Because of the condition that their parents were in, I decided to take them out in such a way that they couldn’t see the front of the car – by the boot, effectively.
“They were led about 10 or 15 metres away.
“The front of the car was on fire, and we had to go and get some fire extinguishers from a nearby caravan to put them out.
“The woman looked to be unresponsive, but when I checked her pulse she clearly had one.
“I could tell straightaway that the dad was dead. Me and some other helpers looked for a pulse, but you could just tell by the way that he his body was contorted that he was gone.
“The woman kept on moving in and out of consciousness, and because the car kept lighting up again, we had to get her out of there, which she did.
“She was bleeding from her nose, and looked to be in a really really bad way. I’m still very concerned for her now.
“A doctor was at the scene and able to look after the mum.
“When the boy came out, Hayley went over to comfort him, and a few went over to the girl.
“It was impossible to talk to either of them. They were fading in and out of shock.
“People were just trying to reassure them that everything would be ok.
“Someone asked me to check out the other car that was involved, but I could tell immediately that there were deaths in there.
“The car was completely smashed up and ruined, and you could body parts had become detached.
“There were just these body parts scattered everywhere. It was horrendous.
“Hayley was really shaken up by the whole thing. She’s never seen anything like that before, and it clearly hit her very hard.
“She wasn’t able to drive the rest of the way, and to be honest just being in the car was pretty tough after you’ve seen something like that.
“We’ve had to drive back home today, and that’s been very hard. I think it’s something that will haunt both of us for a long time.”
The M5 motorway has partially reopened following the crash, that took place on Saturday afternoon between junctions 15 and 14.
