Blizzards strand drivers for hours (From Andover Advertiser)

Blizzards strand drivers for hours

6:08am Tuesday 12th March 2013 in National News © Press Association 2013

Hundreds of drivers were stranded in their vehicles in freezing conditions after snow bought traffic to a standstill.

Motorists were stuck for hours in the bitter cold in long tailbacks as ice and snow made roads across much of the South East impassable. There were reports of drivers stuck for more than 10 hours in queues of up to 30 miles long as police, snow ploughs and gritting lorries battled to treat the roads.

Temperatures plunged to as low as -3C (27F), and many motorists abandoned their vehicles for service stations.

A party of 120 German students were also stuck in Hastings town hall when families due to look after them could not reach them. Volunteers made tea and coffee for the youngsters as they were forced to bed down for the night. The worst areas affected were Sussex and Kent, where the A23 between Crawley and Kent was at a standstill, along with the M23, A26, A27 and A29 after 4in (10cm) of snow fell.

Motorist Jonathan Lara took eight hours to travel less than eight miles after leaving work at Gatwick airport to go home to Brighton on Monday night, the BBC reported. Speaking from his vehicle he said: "It looks like the gritters have been totally caught out by this. I've been stuck in the same place for about three-and-half hours now and it looks like I'm going to be here for hours yet."

One motorist told BBC Radio 5: "There is such a large back-up of cars an ambulance came through between the fast lane and the middle lane, pushing all the cars on to the verge which were then getting stuck, because obviously the verge is very thick and definitely hasn't seen any grit."

John Hall, Gloucestershire's chief fire officer, told the BBC that his journey from just north of Oxford to Brighton by car took him 14 hours. He said the county had virtually ground to a halt. "Of course there are still people stuck on the M23 and the A23, so they are going to be there another good few hours I would imagine."

More than 100 people were stuck for more than four hours on the A2 at Lydden near Dover after a lorry jack-knifed, Kent Police said, leading to a build up of snow drifts up to a metre high. Officers said the areas around Dover and Folkestone were worst hit in the county, with delays on the M20 as lorries queued trying to get into the Channel Tunnel.

Acting Chief Inspector Kay Maynard said: "We know how difficult it has been for many people who felt stranded in their vehicles. We have been trying to get to as many as possible to offer reassurance, as well as deal with the problems on the roads caused by collisions and broken down vehicles."

Sussex Police said officers were working throughout the night with staff from the Highways Agency and were at "full capacity". Rail services are expected to face delays because of the weather, and Southern has warned that services from Brighton and Eastbourne could be cancelled.