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| Geoffrey Counsell cleared over M5 fireworks deaths | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A man in charge of a fireworks display held on the night of a motorway crash in which seven people died has been cleared of breaching health and safety laws. | |
| Geoffrey Counsell had denied a charge of failing to ensure public safety for the Taunton Rugby Club display. | |
| A judge at Bristol Crown Court directed the jury to find him not guilty. | |
| The pile-up involved about 30 cars when they were engulfed by a thick fog on the M5 on 4 November 2011. | |
| The court had previously been told the smog was so thick that motorists on the northbound carriageway likened it to having a tin of paint thrown over their windscreens. | |
| Smoke drift | |
| Mr Counsell, 51, from Ashill, Devon, had been originally charged with seven counts of manslaughter but the charges were dropped earlier this year. | |
| Instead, he was charged under the Health and Safety at Work Act with failing to operate the display so as to ensure that others who might be affected were not exposed to risks. | |
| Mr Counsell, who ran Firestorm Pyrotechnics, was the contractor hired by Taunton Rugby Club to run the £3,000 display, which was watched by about 1,000 people. | |
| He set off 1,500 shots in 15 minutes - just 200 yards from the motorway. | |
| Witnesses described seeing the smoke drift across the nearby carriageway. | |
| Grandparents Anthony and Pamela Adams, from Newport, south Wales; father and daughter Michael and Maggie Barton, from Windsor, Berkshire; battle re-enactor Malcolm Beacham, from Woolavington, Somerset; and lorry drivers Terry Brice, from South Gloucestershire, and Kye Thomas, from Cornwall, died and 51 people were injured in the crash. |