Roads chaos as winter tightens its grip on the region (From York Press)
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Roads chaos as winter tightens its grip on the region
9:51am Tuesday 7th February 2012 in News By Richard Catton & Dan Bean
SNOW and sub-zero temperatures brought chaos to the region with more than 160 crashes closing roads, including the A1(M).
As temperatures fell in the early hours of yesterday, police and fire crews were kept busy by a number of incidents on the A1(M) between junction 59, near Darlington, and as far south as junction 47, where the road meets the A59.
The A19 and A168 were also the scene of accidents yesterday as temperatures fell as low as -10C in some parts of North Yorkshire.
The first incident happened at 2.15am on the northbound carriageway of the A1(M) where a HGV skidded off the road, followed by a number of other accidents as drivers were caught out by the ice.
The closure of the A1(M) brought long delays as drivers were forced onto the A59 and A19.
A police spokesman said: “The police, the fire service, ambulance and the Highways Agency all worked together to ensure that any occupants of the vehicles involved were safe and despite the number of reports received there were very few injuries reported, none of which were serious or life threatening.
“The Highways Agency had salted the roads in this area on Sunday night, but unexpected showers washed away the salt and the rain started to freeze due to low ground temperatures. The roads in the area were covered in sheet ice which contributed to the collisions.”
Despite the conditions and number of incidents, no one was seriously hurt and York Hospital reported no major increase in emergency patients.
There were only two reported incidents in the Selby district, with one crash on the A19 near Barlby resulting in a woman being taken to hospital suffering from shock, shortly after 11am.
Meanwhile, a gritter belonging to City of York Council was put out of action yesterday after one of it’s windows was smashed by a snowball in the Manor Park area.
Coun Dafydd Williams, cabinet member for communities and neighbourhoods, said: “We don’t know if the person who threw the snowball meant to damage the vehicle, but because the snow has frozen overnight and turned to ice, when it’s thrown it can cause some serious damage.”
“So, all we’re asking is to think twice and don’t throw things at our gritters.
“After all, our fleet of gritters are here there to help residents and we can’t do that when they are off the road.”
The Met Office is predicting the freezing temperatures will continue throughout the week. Today should see temperatures reach 1C during the day, though that could drop as low as -5C tonight.
Winter wakes up
THERE we were, thinking we might just get away without a repeat of the blizzards that blasted us a year ago. And then nature had a change of heart, and in a few short hours dumped a whole winter’s worth of snow on us.
It was as pretty as a picture and the children had fun. But the icy conditions brought the predictable chaos on roads and railways.
The bad news is that the cold snap looks set to continue for much of the week. The good news? Well, having started so late, winter surely can’t last too long this year? Can it?
Comments(15)
dogcapp
says...
11:20am Tue 7 Feb 12
lindyloon
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12:10pm Tue 7 Feb 12
Ignatius Lumpopo
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12:20pm Tue 7 Feb 12
AM14
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12:30pm Tue 7 Feb 12
Newton1
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1:09pm Tue 7 Feb 12
twigger
says...
2:34pm Tue 7 Feb 12
Geoffers
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3:00pm Tue 7 Feb 12
cherokee wrote:Anti Jack-Knife works through the trailer brakes. Therefore, it is unlikely to be much use on ice as the trailer wheels can skid sideways whether or not they are rotating!
The usual cause of hold-ups is a "Jack-knifed" truck yet several years ago a device was demonstrated on "Tomorrows World" which prevented "Jack-knifing"Anybod
y know what happened to this device,why it was not developed and if it works why is it not a mandatory fitting
lioncub
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3:37pm Tue 7 Feb 12
twigger wrote:I agree, check out this video!
What will happen when we get some proper cold weather & snow. Just a flurry halts the country. Honestly, how can they call upto -7 Artic weather when actually its probably -50 there.
Great Snow Wall drive in Tateyama (1080p HD) - YouTube
Pete the Brickie
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3:46pm Tue 7 Feb 12
cherokee
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4:58pm Tue 7 Feb 12
Even AndyD
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6:01pm Tue 7 Feb 12
Pete the Brickie wrote:Get a blog.
The only thing stopping that lorry in the picture working is a council leader crouching down in front of it. Luckily unlike a tank struck by an artillery shell at the Somme I'm pretty confident it's primary functions will remain unimpaired by a broken side window. Whilst the cab temperature will drop considerably lower than the minimum 24 degrees C required for life support in police vehicles and council offices it is still safe for front line workers to use with additional ppe.
Geoffers
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7:38pm Tue 7 Feb 12
cherokee wrote:There's no way an 8 tonne tractor can stop a 30 tonne trailer overtaking it other than through the braking system!
Geoffers,I am pretty certain this device worked on the trailer coupling and not the brakes
Geoffers
says...
7:40pm Tue 7 Feb 12
Pete the Brickie wrote:Pete, just imagine what would happen when the next snowball comes flying through the broken window and then renders the driver unconcious!
The only thing stopping that lorry in the picture working is a council leader crouching down in front of it. Luckily unlike a tank struck by an artillery shell at the Somme I'm pretty confident it's primary functions will remain unimpaired by a broken side window. Whilst the cab temperature will drop considerably lower than the minimum 24 degrees C required for life support in police vehicles and council offices it is still safe for front line workers to use with additional ppe.
Remember, the first one broke the window!
Magicman!
says...
1:04am Wed 8 Feb 12
Ignatius Lumpopo wrote:well, the, uh, trying to think of a non-swearing way to describe them, ... Scroates also throw bricks at the streetlight crews and at buses, so why not gritters too. Kinda dumb though, it's not like they're aiming at a small target like a bird is it?
"Think twice and don't throw things at gritters..."? So it's an obvious, natural, first reaction to throw things at gritters then? Maybe I'm an exception, but the thought never crossed my mind... until now...
cherokee says...
11:00am Tue 7 Feb 12
y know what happened to this device,why it was not developed and if it works why is it not a mandatory fitting