ON Friday, November 4, 2011, Robert Weaving and his wife Kate were hoping to make good time as they dove down the M5 to a weekend break in Somerset.

Instead, they got caught up in one of the biggest traffic accidents in British history.

A total of 37 vehicles were caught in the crash, seven people died and a further 51 were injured.

Mr Weaving, from Southmoor, 33 at the time, was driving down the opposite carriageway, but said he could not stop himself pulling over and running to help.

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He spent an hour using a car and a tow rope to pull cars out of the wreckage and free screaming victims trapped in the heap of steel.

The father of two-year-old Polly was one of 24 people presented with bravery awards by Avon & Somerset Police.

Mr Weaving, who builds cars for the Lotus F1 team in Enstone, said: “It was just a reaction, I didn’t think about it.

“It wasn’t brave, everyone just reacts differently.”

Yet he said “thousands” of other cars drove past straight past.

The former Faringdon School pupil, who grew up in Southmoor, remembered first seeing the crash at about 8pm.

“I pulled over on the hard shoulder, maybe in retrospect it wasn’t sensible.

“I ran across three lanes of traffic and the first thing I saw was this guy waving. He was pointing out people that needed help. I didn’t realise at first he was trapped – his car had pushed him against the central reservation.”

A girl in her 20s was lying semi-conscious in the road, covered in blood.

He carried her to the front of the accident where other people had gathered and went back.

“There were bodies, people screaming, blood and petrol everywhere. There was one girl I kept hearing screaming. She was trapped underneath a car beneath a lorry, but she was fully conscious.”

He found a car undamaged by the accident and commandeered it.

Using a rope, he used the car to start hauling vehicles off the wreckage.

He managed to free the girl who had been screaming and the man trapped against the central reservation.

The organiser of a fireworks display at Taunton Rugby Club was latercleared of causing the accident with the smoke from his fireworks display that night.

Mr Weaving thinks about the accident every November now as Bonfire Night approaches.

But he said: “I don’t worry about much because worrying doesn’t help anything.”

At the awards ceremony he sat down at his table only to find he was sat next to the man whose car he had used to tow others from the wreckage.

And on his right was the man whose car had been trapped against the central reservation.

He said: “It was an emotional ceremony.”

Acting chief constable John Long said: “People like Mr Weaving showed incredible bravery and compassion. His actions and those of others undoubtedly saved lives and helped to prevent more serious injuries.”

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