Serious M4 crash in South Gloucestershire on 27 September 1979 at 00:30 involving a car
A car crashed on the M4 in South Gloucestershire at 00:30 on Thursday 27 September 1979. The 32-year-old male driver was seriously injured.
It happened after dark with no street lighting in fine weather on a dry dual carriageway with a 70 mph limit, away from any junction.
- Severity
- Serious
- Date
- 27 Sep 1979
- Thursday, 00:30
- Vehicles
- 1
- Car
- Casualties
- 1
- 1 seriously injured
Location of the crash
Police recorded the crash at latitude 51.56808, longitude -2.52844, in the BS32 postcode district.
Map of where the crash happened in South Gloucestershire
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- 1 crash
- Serious
Collision details
Basic information
- Reference
- 197952EFT1447
- Council area
- South Gloucestershire
- Police force
- Avon and Somerset
Road and location details
- First road class
- Motorway
- First road number
- 4
- Road type
- Dual carriageway
- Speed limit
- 70 mph
Junction information
- Junction type
- Not at junction or within 20 metres
Pedestrian crossing information
- Crossing facilities
- No physical crossing facility within 50 m
Environmental conditions
- Light conditions
- Dark, no street lighting
- Weather
- Fine, no high winds
- Road surface
- Dry
The 6 nearest recorded crashes
The nearest, 61 metres away, was a slight injury crash on 28 July 2001.
Slight
Rover 400 Series crash on the M5 in South Gloucestershire, 28 July 2001
61 m awayRef 2001520103829
Slight
Car crash on the M5 in South Gloucestershire, 5 November 1996
70 m awayRef 19965296E5422
Slight
Ford Mondeo crash on the M5 in South Gloucestershire, 25 January 2006
81 m awayRef 2006520012602
Slight
Jaguar XJ Series crash on the M5 in South Gloucestershire, 22 November 2000
81 m awayRef 2000520148512
Slight
Nissan Micra crash on the M5 in South Gloucestershire, 10 August 2012
82 m awayRef 2012521205474
Slight
Mercedes C Class crash on the M5 in South Gloucestershire, 9 October 2025
84 m awayRef 2025522600237
Vehicles involved (1)
Vehicle 1: Car
- Manoeuvre
- Going ahead
- Travelling from
- North
- Travelling to
- South
- Skidding and overturning
- Overturned
- Leaving the carriageway
- Offside onto central reservation and rebounded
- Hit object off carriageway
- Entered ditch
- First point of impact
- Front
- Driver sex
- Male
- Driver age
- 32 years
Casualties (1)
Casualty 1: Driver
SeriousMale, aged 32, car occupant, in vehicle 1 (Car)
Data source
This record comes from the Department for Transport’s road safety data (STATS19), in which police forces in Great Britain record every road crash reported to them where someone was injured. It is reference 197952EFT1447 in the data published on GOV.UK under the Open Government Licence v3.0, and one of the crashes counted in the South Gloucestershire road accident statistics for 1979.