View Full Version : Winter Driving Conditions
bettedaviseyes
02-Jan-10, 20:21
Hi Folks
As you may know, I live in Fife now. This winter snow/cold snap has seemingly beaten the council here.
A guy I know who works for the council tells me they've run out of salt, so the gritters are putting only sand down on the roads. We've just had a wee flurry of snow there, which came down heavily and lay. No sight nor sound of a gritter. This snow has now been compacted and is like ice on the roads.
Every gritbox is empty (and have been for the past 2 weeks)
To say it's a shambles is being kind.
Talking of salt, you can't buy it for love nor money round here (even in the Cash and carry)
Fortunatly, we live just round the corner from the beach, so we are going round to get some sand, so at least the paths at our house will be ok.
How are conditions in Caithness? Have the council faired any better?
cuddlepop
02-Jan-10, 21:28
Our main roads on Skye have been fairly well gritted its the residential roads and paths that are a nightmare.
Coop car park has turned into an ice rink.:mad:
The bin lorry hasnt been round today and it was scheduled for a pick up ,so either the bin lorry driver is on the gritter or its been deemed unsafe for the refuse workers to walk the pavements.
I'd go with the latter methinks.
Not quite what you have asked but the road to nairn is constantly bad with the snow and no salt being put down. My friend who lives out in nairn but commutes to inverness everyday for work told me at the start of the week that last week on the wednesday the council had three days supply left for the road and nairn and it has since run out.
cuddlepop
02-Jan-10, 21:42
Not quite what you have asked but the road to nairn is constantly bad with the snow and no salt being put down. My friend who lives out in nairn but commutes to inverness everyday for work told me at the start of the week that last week on the wednesday the council had three days supply left for the road and nairn and it has since run out.
How are you manging on the pavements?, we've had to say to my heavily pregnant sons girlfriend to stay at home or get a lift,its driving her "stir crazy".:(
The gritters are out tonight, well 1 at least. In Thurso.
Gonna be a cold one tonight i think. mind as you go.
How are you manging on the pavements?, we've had to say to my heavily pregnant sons girlfriend to stay at home or get a lift,its driving her "stir crazy".:(
Bascially the pavements are so bad it is better to walk on the roads (not main roads though!)
I've been wearing my good sturdy walking boots and can trudge through the snow quite well in them. Finding the walk to work quite hard going and almost couldn't do it on thursday. It's an hour walk and i have a steep and long hill/road to climb before i get to my place of work and its that bit i just struggle and flay on. I'm fine if i get a lift from my partner half way to work though but i can't walk the whole hour walk in the snow anymore. As much as i don't like to realise that i can't do it anymore i have to listen to my body not my pride. Very easy to do when its for baby's sake.
I'm lucky though as my bump is still quite small. i'm 20 weeks now and i've only just started to show a little. Think this helps alot as if i was bigger i wouldn't manage at all.
But when i don't have no choice but to walk i go with my partner in the car. It's really falling that worries me as if i fall i have to go to the hospital to have an anti d injection as i am rhesus negative. Walking in the snow itself doesn't bother me as i did alot as a child when we had drifts of snow and my boots are keeping me upright. I won't walk in the ice at all and if it came down to it i'd refuse to go to work that day if it was really bad. It just wouldn't be worthit.
I can just imagine how stir crazy your son's girlfriend must feel. I'd be the same if i was bigger and further on. At least she is staying safe though.
I was in Tesco in Wick on Hogmanay and they had completely run out of salt of any description. I tried table salt on the paths myself but with only limited success as whenever we get a fresh fall it freezes up again. As was mentioned in an earlier post, I think that the answer is tough walking boots.
Heard the road from Inverness is bad tonight and slippery. My friend in inverness lives in a small culde sac down a small hill, and all those who live there cant get out as the hill is solid ice and no gritters at all as it is a small side road.
Heard the road from Inverness is bad tonight and slippery. My friend in inverness lives in a small culde sac down a small hill, and all those who live there cant get out as the hill is solid ice and no gritters at all as it is a small side road.
Aye thats right. We live in kinmylies and our turn around circle road is a death trap. My partner helped 4 people who were stuck yesterday and has helped 3 so far today and almost got stuck himself when he moved our car out of the way of someone who was stuck.
Side roads in Thurso especially in Springpark are really bad with sheets of ice some 6" thick which the salt won`t shift.
Springpark Terrace tonight was very slippery and the pedestrians were walking in the middle of the road as the paths are too slippy to walk on.
No salt to be had in the town and last of the table salt used yesterday.
Salt boat being discharged in Invergordon tomorrow so hopefully this will all be delivered to the Highlands, if the lorries can get up the icy roads.
It isn't just a Caithness condition. All of the shops in Edinburgh have been sold out of salt for days. I managed to get a bag of sand from the garden centre.
All this talk about pavements reminds me of an old Toronto advert by a political cartoonist Ben Wicks "Be nice clear your ice."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bqtA7HH61o
Where I live in Edinburgh our rubbish hasn't been collected since before Christmas -the communal bins on the street are overflowing with black bags all around them being ripped open and spilling out everywhere. We're now having to keep our rubbish in our flats until the backlog's been cleared. :(
The council say the binmen are a 'bit behind' because of the 'dangerous conditions underfoot'.
That'll be these very same underfoot conditions the council must think are no problem at all for all the rest of us to totter along on........because the council hasn't arranged to grit or salt the pavements..... :confused ....
Today I managed to get a taxi after a long, long, cold wait -very few taxi drivers out because so many roads were untreated - and the driver said he'd taken 5 people to hospital since New Year due to falls on the ice. :eek:
Went to John O Groats tonight and the road conditions there were better than wick, but Keiss was a bit bad. Temperature was higher too.
Salt....john o Groats post office sells salt for pavements etc. i got hard sea salt 89p a tub from Tesco yesterday and my path is now clear.
Presumably Govt. and councils had no warning of a long, v. cold spell although even if they had I doubt if they would have laid up extra stocks of grit and salt or made any advance preparations. If the "wrong kind of snow" can cause such chaos for Eurostar I suppose nothing should surprise us.
Me - I kept saying it was going to be a cold winter, you only had to look at the rowan trees covered in berries. Nobody listens to badgers [disgust] .
Get a good walking stick, preferably one with a spike on the end. I've seen a few around and they definitely help.
i drove til thurso yesterday, fastest iv ever gone so they werna 'at bad. think i may have even hit 50 miles an oer :lol:
got stuck for a menid or two in thurso when i wis reversin til turn roond, couldna go forward, couldna go back...cars waitin til get past....tyres skurlin, horns beepin...me sweitin!!
hate when 'at happens :mad:
did anyone notice there were no street lights in watten aboot teatime yesterday? very dangerous for 'e inexperienced driver. only noticed i hed gone thro 'e village when i came til 'e signs which means ye can go back til 'e national speed limit - oops!
The power was out in Watten from about 11.30 in the morning til just before 6pm yesterday, Trix. My daughter was going frantic, cos their house is all electric, and she had no way to make bottles or warm food for the baby!
I was surprised nobody mentioned about the outage here on the Org.
i think ma inheritance mite hev gone up slightly as its wis ma faither that got 'e call oot.
he wis home by 6.15pm ;)
onecalledk
04-Jan-10, 19:45
hi there
has anyone tried cat litter instead of salt on the ice ? have used it in the past when I had run out of salt. Gives a bit of grip on the pavements....
K
manloveswife
05-Jan-10, 00:41
On a serious note, do be careful out there everyone, we have been visiting relatives in Lancashire, and made our way back to gods country today.
Things were pretty bad from Inverness and we slip slided all the way in our big old rear wheel drive car, had 3 big deer come out in front of us on the road and a few dodgy moments,
BUT, just after Helmsdale on the new Navidale road we hit sheet ice under the snow at 6p.m this evening, us and about six other cars were caught by it, we and a couple of others ended up on the wrong side of the road unable to get back across to the right side for a good couple of minutes. Just sort of crabbed up the hill sideways steering into the slide until we got a little traction.
Anyway, in the end we called the police to get the gritter out, could not go anywhere, then after theyd scattered a spoonfull or two had to call again cause we were going nowhere.
Long story short, if Anything had come the other way whilst all the cars where slipping everywhere, especially something big I dread to think how it could have ended up.
Anyway, home safe and sound but shaken, there definately does not seem to be enough grit going down so please do take care.
celtic1888
05-Jan-10, 00:48
I was working out at forss house hotel today and we used 100kg of sand/salt doing the driveway, i had to try and shift some of the ice away from the door for arriving guests, and some of it was a good 3 or 4 inches thick. took me quite a while to just clear a little bit!!..
However we're back to square one again.. snow...next it'll turn into hard ice, then the rain will come, make the ice like a bottle.. and more snow comes.. back to square one.. it really is horrible to drive in it!!
take care folks
Turquoise
05-Jan-10, 08:29
Anyone have any reports of Thurso to Inverness for this morning???
Boozeburglar
05-Jan-10, 10:21
It is snowing here in Inverness, not too much yet but I have no idea about further North.
Personally I would not chance it if at all avoidable.
:)
Its just a wee bitty o snow what youz all complaing bout lol
joking above lol
Seriously though i am sick of the ice it is dangerous for drivers and pedestrians alike, I fell xmas night n hurt myself. I feel for the elderly who cannot get out to the shops etc... Really cold here in thurso the day windy too. Take care everyone. Hope you get home next week bettydaviseyes looking forward to seeing you and so is the bairn. x:D
Turquoise
05-Jan-10, 13:24
It is snowing here in Inverness, not too much yet but I have no idea about further North.
Personally I would not chance it if at all avoidable.
:)
Thanks very much, it's always good to know what's happening at the other end in 'E Beeg Smoke. No point in getting stuck if you eventually reach Inverness!! :D
bettedaviseyes
05-Jan-10, 13:41
madness like last week you could not get passed perth the roads were closed and we are getting more snow on the way parts of fife are bad and they are trying to keep the grit on the fife to edinburgh road my bother in law works in edinburgh he travels back and fore from fife he said it was a nightmare :confused
We came back from wick tonight and thw watten road was dangerous i dont know if the gritters were out but it doesnt look like it.
I still have my mother staying as she cant get back to Fraserburgh.
At least your mum is safe with you, Fran. Could be stranded half way between here and there in this awful weather.
yes, she is better staying here with me, getting looked after. I will take her back when the weather improves or she could fly down. she is being met at aberdeen but the woman meeting her cannot get out of her drive because of the snow.
Powered by vBulletin® Copyright © 2024 vBulletin Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.