A COUPLE say they are lucky to be alive after their van skidded on black ice near York and ended up on its roof.

Kerry Butler, of Huntington, said she escaped with two black eyes and her partner Ben Lister was uninjured - probably thanks to ladders which were attached to a roof rack and gave them some protection when the van overturned.

"We were going up to Whixley on Sunday morning to carry out cleaning work at the Anchor Inn when we hit a patch of black ice on a bend on the A59 near Poppleton and went onto the other side of the road," she said.

"Luckily there was nothing coming in the opposite direction but we turned onto our side and skidded along the verge for about 20 metres before the van was flipped on to its roof. I ended up upside down with my head on the windscreen.

"When the ambulancemen arrived, they said such accidents were normally fatal. The van was a write-off."

Ben said the road had been gritted at some stage previously but it appeared a patch of water had gathered and frozen over to form a patch of black ice. "We can thank our lucky stars we weren't killed," he added.

Icy roads caused a string of further accidents across North Yorkshire yesterday.

A man was taken to hospital by ambulance with shoulder and side injuries after a van crashed into a ditch near York Golf Club in Flaxton Road, Strensall.

A car left the road and ended up in a ditch in Wheldrake Lane near Escrick, but the motorist was unhurt.

In Naburn Lane, Fulford, a car came off the road and rolled twice, before landing in a field. Police said he "amazingly" escaped serious injury.

There was also a multiple vehicle accident at Osgodby Bank near Thirsk, where motorists suffered minor injuries and a two-vehicle accident on the A1223 at Wistow near Selby in which nobody was injured.

A car also hit a lamppost on the A1237 in Huntington, near Monks Cross, but again the driver was not hurt, and another car went through a fence next to the B1257 between Oswaldkirk and Sproxton but the driver was uninjured.