In a terrifying incident, a lorry veered across the M5’s central reservation and sped in the wrong direction, narrowly missing a Porsche worth £100k. Peter Stone, 55, was returning from a family outing to St Agnes in his Porsche 911 when he saw a lorry hurtling towards him between junctions 28 and 29 – Cullompton and Exeter – at 12.23pm on Friday, August 1.
The father of two, who was driving northbound in the right-hand lane, had mere seconds to react to avoid a potentially fatal collision. He managed to swerve into the middle lane just in time as the lorry driver continued to speed down the busy motorway in the wrong direction.
Peter, who manages a fleet of vehicles for a waste company and hails from Reading, Berkshire, 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. It was just a reflex reaction really. I’m very surprised no-one actually smashed into the truck.”, reports Wales Online.
“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.”
Peter recorded the scene of carnage on his front and rear dashcams, which had been fitted by the dealership when he bought the car back in December. Peter, who holds 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 spokesman confirmed no serious injuries had been reported following the smash.
Police and paramedics rushed to the scene of the crash. The motorway was shut in both directions for just over an hour, with lanes one and two reopening at around 1.30pm to traffic. Emergency repairs were carried out overnight and the carriageway fully reopened at around 3.30am on Saturday morning, the spokesman said. Devon and Cornwall Police and South West Ambulance Service were contacted for comment.