Six crashes in road as chaos bites

“Grit mixes with surface moisture to lower the freezing point and help prevent ice from forming,” he said. “When there is this much water – rain, sleet, run off, puddles etc – it can wash the grit off or make it less effective. While we can plough snow, we can’t dry the roads.”

A spokesperson for Highways England said the Huddersfield section of the M62 had been particularly badly affected.

“There were a lot of issues for people trying to get off the motorway at the junctions,” she said. “Huddersfield was pretty much gridlocked. That had a big effect on the motorway network because people couldn’t get off the junctions.

“From junction 23 westwards the motorway is at its highest point and pretty exposed. We were gritting last night and into this morning.”

The spokesperson said the weather was expected to improve yesterday, but said sleet was expected to return later. “We will continue to monitor the situation,” she said.

The Met Office is forecasting further wintry showers tomorrow.

Road surface temperatures were predicted to fall below freezing last night and will behave erratically in any wintry showers. A yellow warning for snow and ice is in force until Friday. were cones around the temporary traffic lights so I moved them and tried to temporarily close the road as there were four or five cars blocking it and I was worried about them being hit if more came down.

“The woman in the Corsa was injured and someone phoned an ambulance for her.

“My first thought was to help people when I saw all the cars smashed up. “It was like something out of a movie.”

Ben said the cars continued to crash later in the evening when a Black Audi crashed into a wall due to the treacherous conditions.

He added: