Ice Today - care required

[SVT Rick]

This may reach some of you a bit late.
Many of the roads in the Surrey area have ice with little evidence of any gritting.
Motorways not to bad but roads in Redhill including A25 have ice with many people skidding at junctions and the tts who insist on driving with iced up windows.

Take care.
Many incidents being reported on local radio.

This was predicted and yet again little response from the Highways again

[Sooty]

As per my post in the Porsche scetion, was treacheroues on the road between Box Hill and Epsom Downs last night, and I stumbled upon a 993 ....

[Rich VRS]

fking lethal this morning on way to work usual 20min drive took over an hour and half. was 4 seperate accidents all from people driving waay to quickly over blind crests and round corners then hitting ice and skidding off, one person managed to hit 4 cars on a corner.

i will say thank you to the person behind me who was been sensible and waiting for me to get to the top of the icey slopes before following me as took a lot of effort getting up some of the hills this morning as they where sheet ice.

just couldn't believe how quickly some people where driving going the other way having driven past some nasty accidents then flying off to make up time!

hope everyone else got to work safely! be careful out there!

[okgo]

As said, my usual route to work had not been looked at with a gritter. Peopel crashing all over the place, shocking.

People see the sun out and think that its going to be fine no matter what the tempreture from the night before. Idiots.

[smack]

Bloody Hell!! I haven't driven on such bad roads ever. At least snow/slush around when it was icy which you could go off line and get some traction.

Drove out onto my lane, which was icy, but there was a lot of surface water on the road from the flooding so was expecting that. Turn onto the minor road, which was icy too. Roll up to the T junction onto the A road, brake early but nothing due to more ice, and narrowly miss a new bmw which was slowing better than me, and pulling of into a driveway before the junction. Turn onto the A road with the traffic crawling along, slowly move off, but ploughed straight on to the verge/curb, with the front tyres finding something to grip with feck all road to spare.

Within a mile along the A road, 7 cars had stopped due to sliding off the road or into each other. They were not wrong about running out of grit….

[john_r]

Staggered to hear on the Radio this morning that several local A roads and main routes were closed due to ice - and even warnings about the M4?? This was all over the news and weather reports yesterday, yet I didn't see a single gritter out last night?!

Fecking useless. Half the roads in Reading have also developed holes and/or the surface is crumbling due to water getting through the surface and freezing. Every other country I know of in Western Europe the contractors have to guarantee the roads for 10 years - but in the UK we pay more per mile than any of them and get feck all guarantee's! Even the 'safety bumps' are crumbling and ripping tyres up!

Fecking local authorities.
Fecking Highways Agency.
Fecking UK Government.
They're all sh!te.

[SVT Rick]

This is a national disgrace.
Highway Authorities should be given a right roasting of this failure to grit.
Roads are not fit for purpose.

No doubt thre will be some top level spin to smooth it all over - wkers.
Heads should be on the block for this now.

[smack]

Just wait for all our insurance premiums to go up thanks to the crash fest of Feb 09. I can see it now - "Drivers in Surrey, Berkshire, & Hampshire are high risk drivers who crash more that the rest of the UK, so premiums will rise".... Nope, only our councils ran out of salt...

[SVT Rick]

smack said:

Just wait for all our insurance premiums to go up thanks to the crash fest of Feb 09. I can see it now - "Drivers in Surrey, Berkshire, & Hampshire are high risk drivers who crash more that the rest of the UK, so premiums will rise".... Nope, only our councils ran out of salt...

Salt
Forward Planning
Leadership

[smack]

SVT Rick said:

smack said:

Just wait for all our insurance premiums to go up thanks to the crash fest of Feb 09. I can see it now - "Drivers in Surrey, Berkshire, & Hampshire are high risk drivers who crash more that the rest of the UK, so premiums will rise".... Nope, only our councils ran out of salt...

Salt
Forward Planning
Leadership

Accountability

[SVT Rick]

smack said:

SVT Rick said:

smack said:

Just wait for all our insurance premiums to go up thanks to the crash fest of Feb 09. I can see it now - "Drivers in Surrey, Berkshire, & Hampshire are high risk drivers who crash more that the rest of the UK, so premiums will rise".... Nope, only our councils ran out of salt...

Salt
Forward Planning
Leadership

Accountability

Yes I was gonna use that word but my spelling is about as good as a chocolate fireguard.
(or a council gritter)

Just for the record 25 years ago I used to carry out sub-contact works which included drivers for HGV Jetters & Gritting using a big 6x4 Fodens with a plough in the front.
Crash box and 300hp was fun to drive.
The depots never ran out of salt either.

[inf]

hehe left redhill at 5:10am and roads were nice and glistening! Hope there wasnt to many problem out on the roads!

Keep safe everyone

[VerySideways]

I slithered most of the way to work with the traction light coming on and off every few seconds, even on the A329M this morning, ice absolutely everywhere - having said that i went past a certain car park with a couple of dozen cars up to their windscreens in water.

Weird weather!

[SVT Rick]

inf said:

hehe left redhill at 5:10am and roads were nice and glistening! Hope there wasnt to many problem out on the roads!

Keep safe everyone

Have been working in Hatchlands & Whitepost Hill area.
Some very icy places and huge pot holes about.
Mind your alloys and tyres.

[smack]

Forecast for -3 tonight at this time, so a fair chance of more of the same tomorrow.

[HappyS3owner]

So does this mean that my approach at 70mph, vaguely slowing then booting it around the M4 - A404 sliproad this morning wasn't the best judged manover

I hadn't noticed any grip issues but then again I did stick to major roads this morning.

[identti]

HappyS3owner said:

So does this mean that my approach at 70mph, vaguely slowing then booting it around the M4 - A404 sliproad this morning wasn't the best judged manover

I hadn't noticed any grip issues but then again I did stick to major roads this morning.

I'd take care if I were you, 4wd will not give you any more grip through corners - a guy in his RS4 at work had a prang after slipping on ice at < 20mph.

And talking of major roads, the A4 at Woolhapton was icey as fk, I was able to spin the wheels at 20mph in 5th and a lorry had jacknived blocking the whole road. Another had overturned at Aldermaston on the A340 too. As far as I can see even the major roads weren't gritted at all and I saw at least 5 crashes this morning.

What makes it worse is that even if you're not taking care, some tt behind you will be driving 2 inches off your bumper (it should be 2 seconds in the dry, and 10 in the ice ).

Really angry about the irresponsible government causing strife for 1000s of people this morning, and even more angry about the retards who drive closer to my rear bumper than I would ever do in bone dry conditions.

Edited by identti on Wednesday 11th February 17:11

[HappyS3owner]

identti said:

I'd take care if I were you, 4wd will not give you any more grip through corners - a guy in his RS4 at work had a prang after slipping on ice at < 20mph.

Good rant, however I'm pretty happy about what grip my car does or doesn't have, maybe ask Nathan about a certain dash for a bacon sandwich.

[identti]

HappyS3owner said:

identti said:

I'd take care if I were you, 4wd will not give you any more grip through corners - a guy in his RS4 at work had a prang after slipping on ice at < 20mph.

Good rant, however I'm pretty happy about what grip my car does or doesn't have, maybe ask Nathan about a certain dash for a bacon sandwich.

I'm not saying you don't at all Ben, sorry if that came out wrong, just informing you that the fkwits didn't even grit the sliproads for J10 off the M4 and there were many accidents there this morning, and one a month ago where one person looking at his accident damage was killed by another driver sliding on the ice. Just don't want this to happen to a PHer!

[pernod]

identti said:

I'm not saying you don't at all Ben, sorry if that came out wrong, just informing you that the fkwits didn't even grit the sliproads for J10 off the M4 and there were many accidents there this morning, and one a month ago where one person looking at his accident damage was killed by another driver sliding on the ice. Just don't want this to happen to a PHer!

Junction was a mess... I left home 6.45 and it went downhill from there. Winnersh was locked down due to frozen flood water, tried another way and it was flooded, and another was the same again.

Finally drove up to the A4, across to the A329... only to find the A329 was a mess. 9 cars completely ruined, another on its roof and the police trying to get someone out of another. A scary wake up call to how much damage one idiot can do on ice.