Crash road 'should have been gritted' - councillor

Councillor Clayton Hudson says he is of the "absolute opinion" the roads in South Norfolk "should have been gritted"

A road where a man died and a woman was seriously injured in a crash "should have been gritted", a local councillor has said.

A white Toyota Hilux collided with a DAF truck on Tivetshall Road, at Pulham Market, Norfolk, on Thursday at 06:50 GMT.

South Norfolk Independent councillor, Clayton Hudson, said he had driven along the road moments before the crash and described it as like a "sheet of ice".

Norfolk County Council, which grits the county's roads, confirmed the road had not been gritted prior to the collision, and that its highways team determined which roads to grit based on its "specialist weather provider".

In total, Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service responded to reports of at least five road traffic collisions on Thursday morning.

It is not clear whether they were weather-related.

Mr Hudson, who represents Beck Vale, Dickleburgh and Scole, said his vehicle had experienced a "lack of traction" and a "little bit of a slide" while driving on Tivetshall Road moments before the crash.

"We had had a localised rain shower and it froze for about three hours from about 04:30 to about 07:30," he said.

"It was like a sheet of ice on one of the bends.

"From the data that I've seen, I believe that the roads should have been gritted."

Tivetshall Road is directly off a roundabout on the A140, which links Norwich and Ipswich

Norfolk Police said the passenger of the Toyota Hilux, a man in his 20s, died at the scene, while a woman in her 40s was taken to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge by air ambulance, where she remained in a stable condition.

The crash closed the road for six hours.

A spokesperson for Norfolk County Council said its condolences were with those affected and that police were carrying out a full investigation.

"The decision on whether to grit is based upon our specialist weather provider, which breaks the county down into seven different areas for winter gritting," it said in a statement.

"The council's policy is to treat when the forecast road surface temperatures falls below +0.5C and the road surface temperatures overnight on 1/2 January were only forecast to drop below +0.5C (to a minimum of +0.3C) in the west of the county.

"Therefore, the council's gritting run in the west of the county was started at 04:00 and completed around 07:00."

Norfolk Police said no arrests had been made following the crash.

Officers appealed for witnesses or anyone with dashcam footage of either vehicle before the incident to contact them.

The council said it undertook "a full 2,200-mile long countywide gritting treatment" on Thursday afternoon and again on Friday morning.