ITN News / ITN news on Friday 18th December
A few days of cold weather accompanied by some short but intense snowfall have wreaked havoc in the United Kingdom.
Many roads in the worst affected parts of the country are littered with abandoned vehicles. As temperatures rallied into positive figures today many were returning to retrieve their vehicles. Some people had found themselves trapped in their cars overnight in sub zero temperatures.
Public transport systems have also been disrupted. Eurostar high speed trains to and from Europe have suffered break downs due to the ingress of snow into the trains power compartment. Around 2000 Eurostar passengers were trapped for up to 16 hours in the Channel tunnel. Some passengers have experienced panic attacks and there have been some cases of extreme claustrophobia prompting some to leave their trains and attempt to walk to a station.
Eurostar report that they are now returning to a normal high speed train service, after three days out of action. They now have huge passenger backlogs to deal with in both France and the UK.
As freezing temperatures persist the National Health Service has told people they should stay at home unless their journey is absolutely essential. This advice came after hospital accident and emergency departments reported record numbers of people requiring attention for injuries sustained as a result of falls on icy pavements.
With Christmas only days away many people need to visit their local towns in order to complete their pre-christmas shopping. This is forcing people to leave their homes and venture forth onto treacherous pavements.
People are already discussing how badly the UK has managed this latest period of wintery weather. While main roads were quickly treated with grit and salt many smaller side roads remained untreated and most pavements and footpath were completely untreated.
Earlier in 2009 the UK experienced some intense winter weather that plunged the country into arctic conditions, wreaking havoc upon transportation, schools and industry. This latest period of bad weather has prompted many people to ask why the UK suffers so much when winter comes along.
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