unfortunately I think we put too much faith in gritting, the councils dispute the 'no gritting' that everyone is saying and are mentioning that they have vehicle tracking to back up their claims, I think that there are times and conditions when gritting doesnt work, when the snow comes on fast and deep all the grit is buried at the bottom on the road and cant do its work, the layer of snow over the top just compacting over and round the grit.
at the end of the day we get so few snow days that as a nation generally we arent very good at driving under those conditions, as a nation we dont use snow / winter tyres, purely because the expense for just a couple of days a year bad weather doesnt justify it, how many of the cars stuck were prepared, my car still has a blanket, shovel and my bag of swedish sno grips (like snow chains but a lot easier to fit / remove - but only used to get the car out of a tricky spot - then removed again to drive normally- actually great for getting out of muddy fields too).
So was the weather to blame - the councils or the drivers? who knows- a bit of each- its like trains and the wrong kind of leaves on the track.
Do we as a nation expect to be able to drive when the weather is so bad- probably, it was not helped by the fact everyone was just trying to get home after a days work, circumstances just conspired to make things bad, and we have to go looking for a scapegoat. maybe we should learn to help each other again.
Grendel