FAMILY OF 3 STRANDED OVERNIGHT AS THEIR CAR SINKS INTO 7FT SNOWDRIFT

AS their car sank into a massive snowdrift, a couple made a frantic 999 call begging for help. But it would take ten miserable, freezing hours before rescuers could reach them.

The couple, who had a younger relative with them, became marooned on a rural road in Cowbridge, near Cardiff at 10pm on Thursday.

The snow and ice was so severe that emergency workers could scarcely get within four miles of their location.

With no food or water, and with one dressed only in her pyjamas, the family shivered through the long night as blizzards howled around them.

A 15-strong team of men and women from The Civil Aid Voluntary Rescue Association finally launched a rescue mission just before 8am yesterday. The family, who were suffering from hypothermia, were last night recovering at University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff.

Ivor Davies, chairman and director of CAVRA, said: ‘The snow was some seven foot high as we got near the general area and we had to try and plough our way through.’ Hundreds were stranded in their cars overnight as major roads became impassable. Hampshire and Wiltshire Police declared major incidents and called on the military as heavy snow battered the A31 and A303. In Greater Manchester, hundreds were stuck on Britain’s highest motorway, the M62, as bitterly cold winds of 90mph whistled around their cars. And all routes into the snow-battered West Country were either blocked or closed yesterday morning.