MATT Counsell has spoken for the first time of the full horror he felt at being caught up in last year’s M5 crash.

The 24-year-old has battled his way back to fitness in time for the new cricket season, which starts next week.

Matt was travelling back from a coaching session in Taunton when his Ford Fusion car, which he had only been driving for a week, was caught up in the 34-vehicle crash on the northbound carriageway just north of Junction 25 near Taunton, claiming the lives of seven people and injuring 51 others.

Matt told the Weekly News: “I will not forget what happened and how it happened.

“For a car to be in front of you and then just disappear, you just don’t think you’re ever going to be involved in anything like that.

“I tried to move my legs and arms, which I could, so I thought ‘I have to get out of the car’.

“I climbed through the passenger window and went down the bank off the motorway.

“I got caught in a hedge, and a family nearby freed me and took me to the bottom of the bank. It was then that I heard a couple of massive explosions.

“My car was melted, so if I hadn’t got out possibly I wouldn’t be here today.

“There’s a massive amount of relief in the family and the scale of the crash didn’t really hit them that hard until they saw the scale of it on TV.”

Matt received a signed Somerset County Cricket Club shirt, and is thankful for all the support he has received from family, friends and team-mates over the past six months.

He said: “It has been interesting the first few practice sessions playing cricket because the mind knows what it wants to do, but the body doesn’t.

“I haven’t been held back too much. I set myself a few personal targets to make sure I was fit enough to play the first match of the season and, weather permitting, I should be ready for that.”

An investigation into the cause of the tragedy is ongoing – police initially focused on a fireworks display at the nearby Taunton Rugby Club, but later turned their attention to the weather.