Icy roads lead to multiple crashes in north Wales

Icy conditions led to 69 accidents on roads in north Wales within a space of hours on Monday, police have said.

Some council highways officials said they did not start gritting roads until Monday morning as overnight forecasts said it would not freeze.

North Wales Police said it saw a "surge in demand" with calls to its control room with 69 reports of road traffic collisions between 07:00 and 13:00 GMT.

A spokesperson urged motorists to take care on the roads.

An injured man was airlifted to Royal Stoke University Hospital, Stoke-on-Trent, after a two-vehicle collision in Pentre Halkyn, Flintshire, at 08:00.

In another incident, a cyclist suffered serious injuries after a collision with a tractor on Hawarden Road, Hope, Flintshire, at 11:35.

Supt Alex Goss from North Wales Police said: "We experienced a surge in demand into our control room reporting collisions across all six counties.

"As a result of two separate collisions two people have been taken to hospital in Stoke with serious injuries and we wish them a full recovery."

Trouble spots in Denbighshire included the A547 near Rhuddlan and the A525 near St Asaph while the A5151 at Trelawnyd, Flintshire, was also affected.

In Anglesey, the A5025 at Pentraeth and B5111 at Llangefni were both affected.

Denbighshire council said it received several weather forecasts on Sunday, including one at 22:00 stating that temperatures would remain above zero due to cloud cover.

It added: "A further update was issued at 05:00 today [Monday], stating the cloudy skies had cleared unexpectedly and temperatures had dropped. As a result the council deployed its gritters and they are still out and about this morning treating the main roads and problem areas."

Flintshire council said: "The council did not undertake any precautionary gritting yesterday [Sunday] evening because the forecast received by the council did not require it. Temperatures did however fall below freezing this morning in some areas and the gritting fleet were deployed to treat the network."

Further west, Conwy council gritted all its priority routes on Sunday night and Monday morning.

And Gwynedd council said: "We can confirm that parts of the primary network roads were gritted last night based on forecasts for icy conditions."