THE M4 narrowly avoided becoming gridlocked after two accidents in the space of 40 minutes yesterday afternoon.

Nobody was injured despite a car and a lorry colliding and a car fire between 1.45pm and 2.25pm in separate incidents. At 1.45pm a car and a lorry were in collision between the two Swindon junctions, 15 and 16. A Proton car collided with the rear end of a lorry but both were able to stop on the hard shoulder without disrupting traffic. No one was injured.

In the second incident firefighters from Westlea fire station were called to attend to a Peugeot 309 on the hard shoulder travelling westbound a mile from junction 16. The car was suffering mechanical problems and the car caught fire once the occupants had got out. The police initially closed all three lanes for 20 minutes, before opening the centre two lanes and leaving the lane nearest the hard shoulder closed for recovery.

Courier Gerry Jackson, 68, from Abbey Meads was held up for 20 minutes by the car fire. He said: "Everybody was driving along at 70 mph and all of a sudden it started to slow down and within five or six hundred yards we had all stopped."