Bank Holiday traffic was ground to a halt today when a goat running down the M5 caused the motorway to be closed in both directions.
Motorists were left stunned this morning when the brown goat was seen darting across the lanes of the M5 between Taunton and Weston-super-Mare in Somerset.
Several onlookers got out of their cars and attempted to shepherd the animal off the motorway to safety.
Derya Kirdag, 30, was driving to a campsite near Alton Towers with her partner, Bradley Biden, 28, who works in finance, when she saw a sign telling traffic to slow to 40mph due to an animal in the road.
When the traffic reached a standstill, Derya got out of her car and saw the commotion caused by the goat.
She was able to capture the incident on her phone, before being told to return to her car by police.
Derya, an engineer, from Exeter, Devon, said: ‘We were about 45 minutes into a four-hour journey, when we saw a massive sign that said to slow down to 40mph because of an animal in the road.
‘We came to a complete stop, so I got out of the car to see what was going on.
‘It was crazy – everyone was laughing.
‘Normally if there’s traffic people would be annoyed, but everyone seemed quite happy.
‘I spoke to a few people and everyone was just laughing and having a good time.’
Derya and Bradley were delayed for around half an hour, before the traffic cleared and they were able to continue their journey.
Derya said: ‘I didn’t see the goat again, but I asked a policeman and he said that they’d managed to get the goat to jump into a hedge.’
A National Highways spokesperson said: ‘In this case, we received a report of a goat on the M5 at junction 25 for Taunton at 11.20am this morning and our traffic officers arrived on scene at 11.50am.
‘The goat left the carriageway unharmed through the adjoining verge and the motorway was reopened to traffic just before 12.10pm.
‘Safety is our top priority when we’re dealing with incidents and that includes those involving animals.
‘Our advice is not to put yourself at risk if you see a loose animal on our road network.
‘Always call 999 in an emergency or you can report sightings of any animals on the carriageway to our Customer Contact Centre on 0300 123 5000.’