A grim day on roads in icy conditions

BUS passengers last night told of their anger at being stranded in Norwich because a service was cancelled following an accident as bad weather continued to hit the region.

More than a dozen bus passengers were left waiting at Norwich Bus Station for First's X2 service to Lowestoft which also takes in Loddon and Chedgrave. The service should have picked passengers up from Norwich just after 6pm but, following an accident on the A12, the service was cancelled.

A spokesman for Norfolk police said they received reports of a four-car accident on the southbound carriageway of the A12 at Hopton, near Great Yarmouth, at just after 5.30pm which blocked one lane.

Officers turned back traffic from the roundabout at the James Paget University Hospital so they could deal with the crash which resulted in one person being taken to hospital with minor injuries.

Lynda Waldron, 56, from Beccles, was one of the passengers stuck at the bus station.

She said: 'I called them this afternoon to be told that there would be buses running tonight but there would be delays because of the weather conditions.'

Meanwhile a one-year-old baby suffered a possible cardiac arrest in one of dozens of road accidents caused by the icy conditions across Norfolk yesterday.

Police were called to 63 road traffic collisions just in the morning, and a spokeswoman for the East of England Ambulance Service said it attended 19 crashes between midnight and 1.30pm and took people to hospital in nine of those.

Just before 6am a car overturned on the A1042 near the Brickmakers pub in Sprowston Road, Norwich.

An ambulance service spokes-woman said a one-year old baby was in the vehicle and suffered a possible cardiac arrest but was resuscitated by paramedics before being taken to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.

A Norfolk police spokeswoman said: 'It was a one-vehicle collision and the car went through the fence of the pub. It appears that the child onboard may have been ill before the accident. Weather conditions were a contributory factor.'

Emma Teasdale, manager at the Brickmakers, confirmed that a car had crashed through its fence, and the silver Astra was later towed away.

The baby was still in hospital yesterday afternoon, but the N&N was unable to give details of the baby's condition.

In other accidents, at about 6.10am, a man in his 40s was taken to the N&N with a possible spine injury after a crash in Boundary Road, Norwich, involving a car and a lorry.

And at 6.35am, on the A47 at East Tuddenham, near Dereham, a vehicle ended up in a ditch, and one man in his 50s was taken to the N&N with rib injuries.

Fourteen cars were involved in accidents off Riverside Road in Norwich before 9am, despite two gritting sessions, including a major shunt on Chalk Hill Road.

People were taken to hospital following accidents in Green Lane, Wramplingham, near Hethersett; Mallow Way and Hollow Grove Way junction, Lowestoft; Kensington Road, Winston Churchill Drive, the Tennyson Avenue and Gaywood Avenue junction, all in King's Lynn; and Sporle Road, Swaffham, where two buses were involved.

Collisions also occurred on the A47 at Blofield, the A11 at Ketteringham, the A140 at Long Stratton, the B1108 Watton Road in Barford and on the A143 at Haddiscoe.

Accidents continued into yesterday afternoon with a five-car crash on the A11 between Wymondham and the Thickthorn roundabout, at about 3pm. One lane of the road was blocked but reopened before 4pm.

Norfolk police last night continued to urge drivers to take care on the roads, and a spokeswoman for the ambulance service said: 'Snow has meant a higher than usual number of road traffic collisions on the region's roads but once again our crews and support staff have done a great job in adverse circumstances, ensuring patients are reached and given the treatment they need.'

A Weatherquest spokesman, based at the University of East Anglia, said no snow showers were expected today.