A father has slammed safety at an "extremely dangerous" junction after his children were left “petrified” by a horror crash.
Chris Bellam and two of his sons had to kick the doors of their Volkswagen Arteon open after the pile-up before the junction 5 slip road on the M1 on Thursday, September 8.
Mr Bellam, 42, said a heavy goods vehicle and five other cars smashed into each other after traffic from the slip road backed up onto the M1 at around 8.45am.
Describing the "enormous" crash, the father-of-three said: “I was the second car. There were four vehicles behind so I couldn’t see what happened.
"We slowed down normally and then suddenly we span, and the airbags went off.
“My boys thought the car was on fire, I did too to be honest.
"Our doors were jammed, we had to kick the doors open to get out."
He added that despite all the cars being written off he felt “lucky” and that the crash “could have been a lot worse for everybody.”
As a result of the trauma, Mr Bellam and sons Stanley, 10, and Arthur, 7, now take a much longer route to school.
He said: “We did that route each morning for school and you don’t think about it until something bad happens, but now I’m hyper-aware of it and I’m worried it will happen again.
“It’s extremely dangerous.
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“My boys have been petrified and in tears waiting so we have had to go up the next junction, which still isn’t great.
"It is a bit better as it has a longer slip, but it adds 45 minutes to the journey.”
The music manager, who lives in London and takes his two eldest children to school in Bushey, hopes the crash highlights the danger at the junction.
He added: “We have gone through this so we might as well try to get something good out of it."
Head of service delivery at National Highways Francis Cluett said: "Safety is our top priority, and our vision is for everyone who travels on our network to get home safe and well."
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