Drivers warned to watch out for black ice

Changeable conditions are predicted over the coming days and could include snow, sleet and rain in some areas which, combined with freezing temperatures, increases the risk of black ice forming.

Routes across the county were treated on Monday evening but heavy showers followed in the early hours which lead to black ice in some areas as rain fell on freezing surfaces.

County Councillor John Fillis, cabinet member for highways and transport, said: “The difficult conditions experienced by drivers in some areas first thing this morning show why we a! lways advise people to take extra care and drive to the road conditions, as just because a road has been gritted it may not be clear of ice.

“The forecast for this evening is for some possible sleet and snow in the late evening, most likely affecting higher ground. Tomorrow should start fine, but further wintry showers could occur later in the morning.

“Our gritters will be treating most of our priority gritting routes this evening with drivers being retained to patrol and salt as necessary because of the changeable conditions.

“Some routes will not be treated to start with as the risk of ice is lower in some areas and the routes already have salt left on them from being treated at around 7am this morning, but we’ll continue to monitor and treat them again if we need to.

“In changeable conditions like this there’s an increased risk of black ice so we’re asking drivers to be extra careful.”

Lancashire County Council has a fleet of 49 frontline gritters which can treat the 1, 500 miles of the county council’s priority road network within around four hours, but may take longer in severe conditions.

You can find information and advice on winter weather, including real-time gritting updates on Lancashire County Council’s website which has links to forecasts and the council’s Twitter and Facebook feeds which are updated every time the gritters go out.

For more information about travelling this winter visit www.lancashire.gov.uk/winter, follow the #lancswinter hashtag for news and updates on Twitter www.twitter.com/lancashirecc or Facebook www.facebook.com/lancashirecc