I doubt anyone in England could have missed the terrible news about the multiple car pile up on the M5 this weekend which has resulted in 7 deaths so far and a number of badly injured..
A lot of attention is being directed toward the firework display being given at a rugby club just a short distance from the motorway..
Some are saying the misty weather helped keep the smoke down at low level which the drifted across the carriageway causing bad visiblity.

I wonder if the smoke plus the mist plus the distraction of the firworks might all have played their part but it is a tragedy that most likely could have been avoided.

Is there anyone else who feels this might just be the nudge the government needs to stop the sale of fireworks to the general public?
There have been many campaigns and movememnts trying to ban the sale of fireworks but none have yet succeded..

Maybe 7 deaths and such a huge distruption to the road network is whats needed to make people see sense and call a stop to all but the very professional displays, with qualified pyrotechnics engineers at the controls.

Would you be happy is the general sale was stopped or do you think thats going too far?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2058391/M5-crash-Motorists-blame-fireworks-organiser-insists-fault.html

I see it as just an excuse to blame the accident on, I noted that no reference was made to the fact that in that section of the M5 the surface has been tested and deemed unsafe in the event of severe breaking by HGV’s the report on it actually said “in the event of a fully laden articulated vehicle having to make an emergency stop the chances of disintegration of the upper road surface is high, so it is no surprise that with several wagons involved it made things worse, let’s face it the highways agency across in the UK are severely underfunded sue to the near bankruptcy of the country to such an extent they cannot even make essential safety repairs in many locations, it wouldn’t surprise me if this was just the first of more, the surface of those motorways is not capable of being safe at 30mph never mind the national limit of 70mph.

This even made the news here - which is amazing since in the US, you very rarely hear about anything that happens more than about 50 miles from where you live.

I don’t think it’s fair to ban fireworks as a result of this accident; in any case, wasn’t the event being implicated in the accident a public one? Even if fireworks were banned for sale to the general public, surely organized events would still happen?

How about instead of banning, we learn from the experience and make sure that future events aren’t close to major roads?

You all make good points, but I still think fireworks should be banned, at least to the general public anyway. They’re a complete waste of money, loud and there are always accidents caused by them.

I don’t like the fact that any so and so can walk into a supermarket a buy a trolley full of the things either.

I reckon fireworks should be kept for New Years and New Years only.. and that’s whilst making sure all precautions have been taken.

IF ONLY.It seems very likely that this display was the cause of this terrible crash, causing poor visibility and [ possibly ] distracting drivers with the flashing lights and sounds. Letting off fireworks has caused so many problems in the past, injuries, fires, pets terrified, but its unlikely the Government here will stop their sale/use, especially that tey are used by Asian families over several days ,to celebrate Diwali, yet this is a ‘Festival of Light ’ not noise, I have been told in ,reply to one of my campaigns , that ‘Fireworks are a source of family entertainment’, so there are no plans to stop it, and no Government will want to upset the Ethnic minority groups.

petal888 - 08 Nov 2011 08:58 PM

You all make good points, but I still think fireworks should be banned, at least to the general public anyway. They’re a complete waste of money, loud and there are always accidents caused by them.

I don’t like the fact that any so and so can walk into a supermarket a buy a trolley full of the things either.

I reckon fireworks should be kept for New Years and New Years only.. and that’s whilst making sure all precautions have been taken.

The problem is, if you make them illegal people will still get hold of them and use them - probably in more irresponsible ways than if they were legal.

Here in the US, they’re legal in some states and illegal in others. Come 4th July it doesn’t matter - people are letting them off all over the place, regardless of the law.