UK snow: ‘Where are the gritters’ Furious drivers blast ‘death trap’ unsalted roads
THE ‘Beast from the East’ brought freezing and heavy snow from Siberia overnight and into Wednesday morning blanketing roads and sparking fury from drivers across the country over the “death trap” conditions caused by unsalted roads.
Lorries stuck on A1 after treacherous UK SNOWFALL
Councils across the country struggled to salt roads as the Arctic blast pummelled the UK with more snow than initially expected.
Commuters awoke to a blanket of snow with many unsalted roads and slippery pathways sparking fury from drivers and pedestrians heading to work.
Many took to social media to air their grievances and to ask why roads had not been cleared or gritted.
Nigel Rumble tweeted: “Here in Hampstead this morning, going through Nassington Road. No grit anywhere.
“Literally as I writing this cars skating with total loss of control and traction. Only in Britain can we be so unprepared.”
Stuart Malcolm also commented: “How many gritters are in London? Certainly no roads in SE19 have been gritted.”
Meanwhile a tweet to London Mayor Sadiq Khan with the hashtag “#totally failing London", said: “No gritters out gritting roads, pavements.”
Another Twitter user asked Haringey Council, in London: “Please can you de-ice Woodfield Way and the roads nearby.
”It's a death trap and we have loads of old people who live on our road who are stuck inside.”
Veolia, which manages the gritting locally, replied tweet: “All our sweepers have been deployed on pavement gritting duties and we're doing our best to get around as much of the borough as possible with the resources we have.”
In the North East complaints were also made about slippery roads around Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and similar issued were raised in Scotland.
One Twitter user based in Middlesbrough complained: 'Where the f*** are all the gritters. Roads are like death traps."
Stein Connelly, of Transport Scotland, told BBC Radio Scotland: “We're seeing significant weather disruption on the network, we've got all our gritters out and ploughs working right throughout the day, right throughout the night, but we're still seeing significant challenges.”
Meanwhile Matt Worden, who is responsible for roads in Norfolk admitted the county council did not expect the huge amount of snowfall that came overnight.
Mr Worden told the Eastern Daily Press: “Since 3pm yesterday we have been out four times and we are out on our fourth run now. That is 49 routes, which is 2,200 miles each time.
Roads are like death traps
“Every time we go out, that's 330 tonnes of material we put on the roads. With hindsight, we should have put the ploughs on the gritters sooner, which I'd have done if we had known how much snow we were going to get, but we didn't know.”
“Conditions deteriorated from about 4am until about 9am and we've now got all our gritters out with ploughs. But the A11 and the A47 are solid with traffic and I've got two gritters stuck in traffic.
“If I'd known last night what I do now, then I'd have had the ploughs out at 4am. But there wasn't as much snow forecast as we've had.”
There are reportedly almost 4,000 gritters available to tackle the cold blast hitting the UK.
The RAC Foundation, which compiled the figures, warned drivers not to expect every road to be clear of snow and ice despite the size of the fleet tackling the conditions.
The motoring research charity's analysis of DVLA data revealed there are 3,238 gritters in England, 431 in Scotland, 105 in Wales and 64 in Northern Ireland.
The news comes as the UK braces for Storm Emma which is forecast to hit the UK on Thursday bring more heavy snow and freezing temperatures.