A GRITTER unable to do its job because it was stuck in traffic caused by untreated roads summed up the situation yesterday as Essex awoke to a blanket of snow.
Despite being put on alert on Tuesday afternoon, the council's 60 new trucks did not begin work until after yesterday's snowfall brought the road network to halt.
Snow turned to ice and traffic on the county's busiest roads came to a standstill as cars struggled in the treacherous conditions.
Essex County Council transport boss Derrick Louis blamed forecasts for not predicting the snowfall, which closed more than 60 schools and Stansted Airport for two hours yesterday morning.
He said: "I apologise for the situation many road users faced. We use dedicated weather forecasts to decide when to grit and the forecasts were not predicting adverse weather on Tuesday night.
"We were constantly reviewing the situation overnight and the fleet were sent out to grit the full network as soon as severe weather warnings were received."
But it was too late – Essex Police reported 45 accidents in a few hours after the snow fell.
Mr Louis said his focus for Wednesday was to ensure gritters spread salt throughout the day.
"Unfortunately, treating the roads and spreading salt does not always guarantee that the roads will be free from ice and snow so we would urge all road users to travel carefully," he added.
