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Police warning over Wirral's ice rink roads




Motorists are being advised to drive with extreme caution and avoid making unnecessary journeys during the icy weather, as the police and highways agencies deal with several incidents on roads today.

Several lanes of the Manchester-bound carriageway of the M62 were closed this morning following several minor road traffic collisions near to the Rocket, and the M53 in Wirral was experiencing severe delays and congestion due to sheet ice between junction 1 in Wallasey and junction 2 in Bidston.

Earlier in the day part of the M58 was closed in the Maghull area after a car collided with a barrier in the central reservation after losing control on the ice. No-one was injured and traffic is now moving freely on the M58.

Inspector David Corcoran from the North West Motorway Police Group is advising people to avoid making journeys by car unless absolutely necessary, and if they do take to the roads, to drive with extreme care or delay the journey until the sun is higher in the sky and some of the ice may have melted.

He said: "The whole of the motorway network across Merseyside is experiencing severe problems due to the extremely cold weather, and as a result we have been busy this morning dealing with a large number of collisions involving motorists.

"Thankfully, no one has been severely injured and the North West Motorway Police Group, the Highways Agency, and local councils have been working hard at clearing these incidents so that traffic can start moving freely again.

"However, there is still sheet ice on alot of our roads which is often not visible to drivers so I would urge people to drive a lot more carefully today, whereever they are going, and to be more mindful of the other cars around them and the road conditions.

"Drivers should leave plenty of room between them and the car infront, drive slower than they normally would, use their gears to slow down where possible rather than their brakes, and to pay attention to traffic information given on the Matrix signs on the motorways.

"But better still is to avoid taking to the roads at all if that is possible unless your journey is absolutely vital and, if it is, try and delay it until midday or later so that at least some of the ice will have had some sun on it and had chance to melt."

THE GLOBE

That information doesnt help in the slightest. Today Ive still seen people razzing about, locking up under braking etc...

I think people need to take their driving tests again

Sick of hearing about this tbh. It's cold and icy, it's the same every year, just drive carefully, and don't be surprised when public transport is late.

...or use a little common sense and leave a little earlier!

i moved about six inches forward this morning at 7.00am and then slid 4 feet into my own fence at a speed of about 0.5mph..be carefull out there guys...oh and another bad one is the road by the tennis courts at birkenhead park(the side road).saw two kids skating on there as i crawled past them

just on another note,i have to go to chester in the morning,anyone been up that way,any advise on least icy route or is it not too bad???

There was some middle aged muppet this morning on the little roundabout at Hamilton Square by my work who thought that everyone would be really impressed if he did a handbrake turn round the roundabout on the ice - all he got was half a dozen people saying "w*nker"

I don't see the problem to be honest - it's not like we live in a tropical country and we're not used to crap weather. Just use some common sense

saw a lady before skid across the pavement in frodsham street and she didnt even put her mobile down,just carried on talking away whilst driving far too fast
WTF IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE.IDIOTS

Its the pavements ive got issues with! No grit for us pedestratians.

dosnt seem to be much grit for us drivers either lol

there was a van trying to get up our road and into Naylor Road. he went backwards rather than forwards despite giving it all he's got. took a load of lads to get it on the speed bump and round the corner.

I heard on Radio Merseyside earlier on, that the roads are not being gritted as often or as widespread as they should be, because of the fkin government and their stupid laws again.

Basically, if the council grit a road, and there is an accident on that road within a certain period of time, attributed to ice/snow etc, then the council is automatically legally liable for the damages and injuries.

However, if they do not grit the road, then they are not held liable.

So it is not really in their interests to grit the roads, because obviously they want to minimise the liability they could face as a result of doing so.

Also, they said there were only 8 gritters in the whole of Liverpool... not sure if they meant LCC, or inner-Liverpool or what, but it is quite appauling either way.

The money they 'save' by lack of gritting will be spent in the hospitals, the nhs having to treat the accident victims. Madness.

Could be worse..

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