M5 Crash Memorial

The M5 motorway near Taunton carries around 70,000 vehicles a day, but few drivers notice the small memorial that marks one of Britain's worst road accidents. On 4 August 1975, a petrol tanker jack-knifed in thick fog, triggering a catastrophic pile-up involving 25 vehicles. Ten people died instantly. The memorial - a simple, sobering marker - sits just off the carriageway as a stark reminder of how quickly things go wrong.

This isn't a tourist attraction in the traditional sense. You won't spend hours here. There's no visitor centre, no tea shop, no interpretation boards explaining the tragedy in detail. What you get is a moment of quiet reflection by the roadside, perhaps five or ten minutes if you've made the effort to stop. It's the kind of place that appeals to those interested in transport history, road safety advocates, or anyone struck by stories of how fragile our motorway network can be.

Access is straightforward enough if you're staying at one of the nearby caravan parks around Taunton - Ashe Farm or Cornish Farm are just a couple of miles away. The memorial requires no admission fee and has no set opening hours; it's accessible year-round. The Somerset Levels surrounding this stretch of motorway are flat and unremarkable by day, but the fog that descended on that August morning was genuinely treacherous. It's worth a brief visit if you're in the area, though honestly, this is more pilgrimage than pleasure.