{"id":567983,"date":"2026-05-05T20:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T20:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/567983\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T20:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T20:12:08","slug":"m5-delays-hit-over-five-hours-crash-involving-tanker-and-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/567983\/","title":{"rendered":"M5 delays hit over five hours crash involving tanker and car"},"content":{"rendered":"

A stretch of the M5 in Somerset has reopened, 16 hours after a tanker and car crashed.<\/p>\n

The M5<\/a> was closed southbound between junction 22 Burnham-on-Sea and junction 23 Bridgwater North after the crash during the early hours of this morning (Tuesday, May 5).<\/p>\n

National Highways reported delays of at least five hours in the area, although drivers stuck say they have been there much longer.<\/p>\n

It said: “The M5 in Somerset is closed southbound between J22 Edithmead Interchange (Highbridge, Burnham-on-Sea A38) and J23 Dunball Interchange (Bridgwater A38; Glastonbury, Wells A39) due to a serious collision involving a HGV (a fuel tanker) and a car.<\/p>\n

“A large diesel spill and nearside barrier damage has been confirmed as a result. Traffic caught within the closure has been released.<\/p>\n

“There are currently 5 hour delay, with 14 miles of congestion on the approach to J22. There is additional long delays on the diversion route detailed below.<\/p>\n

Traffic monitoring site Inrix reported a fuel spillage on the road, causing traffic to queue either side of the closure.<\/p>\n

All emergency services <\/a>were on the motorway dealing with the incident.<\/p>\n

At 7.15pm National Highways said the road reopened, but there were two-hour delays and eight miles of congestion.<\/p>\n

Around 8.45pm, traffic on the motorway returned to normal.<\/p>\n

Scroll down for all the updates from today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A stretch of the M5 in Somerset has reopened, 16 hours after a tanker and car crashed. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,38927,50,3882,2888,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-567983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-m5","tag-news","tag-somerset","tag-traffic-travel","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}