Dave’s views with a few pictures I took on the roads todayMerse you are out of order mate, you can’t really start calling staff who work at a college lazy, because they have been told not to go to work today because the college is closed. What do what the said staff to do? Still turn up and find the gates locked? Because they are and just what would be the point of that please tell me.
So you have found some nice 6 in soft snow to drive on have you? Apart from the main roads here in Torbay half of the other roads are closed as they are solid sheets of frozen snow. The road behind ours where everyone has to park their cars was closed yesterday and still is now as I write this.
No good saying it just shows how rubbish Torbay Council is, because it was the same in Weymouth, Dorchester, Yeovil( the worst) Chard, Weston Super Mare, Bridgwater, Taunton, Wiveliscombe, Wellington, Cullumpton. I have only just got home after getting stuck three times during the day and I was for a very long time at my last call in Cullumpton that I got too at 3pm.
Knowing how bad it was where my garage is, I did think about leaving my car in the street last night, only to find the road had been closed off because it’s so dangerous. I was worried where my garage is would be worse and that was the case and Ant, Carols dad some other people and I. spent 25 minutes last night just getting my car into the garage. Then we spent the same amount of time getting Ants car in his garage.
Expecting it to be near impossible to get my car to the road from my garage this morning, I went and gave it a go at 5am, I was close to giving up, but somehow managed it in the end.
I was only expecting to have one real problem today and that was going down Abbotsbury Hill and it did not let me down. I stopped at the top and had to take some time to decide if I was going to go down it. I put the van in first gear, hand brake nearly fully on, moved me feet away from the peddles, closed my eyes and said a little prayer to myself. It worked, but far worse was to come as the day went on.
Weymouth and Dorchester was not to bad, but Yeovil was a nightmare, same problems that Torbay has, snow compacted on the roads and frozen solid, making the roads a very suitable surface to hold Celebrity skating On Ice. I turned into one road I needed to use and was just about keeping the van moving.
Then coming the other way Nervous Nora, there were parked cars on her side and all she had to do was just let her car roll gently down the hill and past me as there was plenty of room. No she wants to hit the brakes and then her car is sliding toward my van, so she takes her foot of the brakes and whacks the steering wheel around.
She missed me and it was only two seconds later I heard the first of her three crashes, I looked into my mirror and saw a Cleo spinning in the road, it had been so nicely parked, then she hit two more parked cars and then her car slide around a bend and out of view.
Weston Super Mare also had a great deal of snow and once again the main roads were not too bad, but the places I need to go such as industrial estates, were once again just ice rinks. Same problem In Bridgewater and Taunton where I swear one day I will kill someone on one of the three pedestrian crossings in the town centre. Flashing amber means do not start to cross, but do they take any notice? No they don’t and after seeing what you believed was the last person on the crossing make the safety of the pavement and you start to move forward, only to discover some fool has dashed across from the other side and is now in front of your moving vehicle
I forgot to say I got stuck for a short while in both Yeovil and Weston Super Mare and now I’m thinking to myself, do I really fancy going to Wiveliscombe, knowing how bad it is there when there is snow about. I history lesson for you all, before it was changed to Wiveliscombe, it was called Wifeless Combe, as the only people who lived in the Combe were farmers and none were married, now lets not go there shall we.
As expect plenty of snow and as I turned into the road for RGB, I could see their entrance was blocked by a lorry that had got itself into all sorts of problems( see picture) the tractor unit in the end had to be pulled from its trailer, good job there are lots of four by fours in Wivi. They had send for a JCB to deal with the trailer, not sure what the plan was and I did not ask, but after having to park down the road as the bloke would not let me get any closer with my van, I walked to RGB got the call done and headed for Wellington, via Milverton.
That road really was very dangerous as its only lanes, but I was pleased to get to Wellington and then pick up the M5 to head for Cullumpton. Last call and I go and get stuck big time, but by the time I did get there, the temperatures were dropping fast and the snow had frozen after having given a little during the day in the sun.
So yes I went to work, drove 370 miles in places that have had far more snow than South Devon has had, got home and lived to tell the tale, but do I really want to go to North Devon tomorrow? Not really, but I’ll give it a go.
The state of many of the residential streets here are the worst I have seen and I would not blame any car owner for deciding not to try and drive their car on them, this comes from someone who is a real pro.
Three pictures taken in Yeovil, the last one where the lady hit the parked cars, only where that happened is just out of sight.
Bridgwater.
Wiviliscombe and that trailer.
Looking back down the road.
On the way to Milverton
What a load of fuss over what is just the more severe end of normal January weather.
