A SECOND major crash on the M5 motorway in a fortnight led to more gridlocked traffic on roads around Wellington and on the A38 into Taunton on Thursday (August 24) afternoon.

Four vehicles and a car towing a caravan were involved in a collision on the northbound carriageway of the motorway between Taunton and Bridgwater just before 12.30 pm.

Traffic was held for about an hour to allow an air ambulance to land, but police said it was not thought anybody had suffered life-threatening injuries.

Fire and rescue crews were sent from Taunton and Bridgwater and found four people were trapped in the wreckage.

They used stabilising blocks and small tools to free them and then handed the casualties over to ambulance paramedics.

Two lanes northbound remained closed for several hours and traffic travelling south was also held for a short time.

Queues of stationary vehicles quickly backed up on the northbound side past junction 26 for Wellington and toward Devon and did not clear until the late afternoon.

Motorists were urged to avoid the affected stretch of motorway and many left at junctions 27 and 26 to use the A38.

It resulted in Wellington Relief Road becoming clogged and nose-to-tail lines of traffic going into Taunton, where Silk Mills and Staplegrove Road also became jammed.