GRITTERS won support at a full meeting of City of York Council for the way in which they dealt with icy roads.

Coun Tracey Simpson-Laing, the council's executive member for transport, said there was a sharp drop in conditions shortly before chaos descended on the A59 on January 4.

The council's gritting policy has come under criticism after a series of crashes in treacherous road conditions on that Saturday morning, including an accident which left a van perilously close to a railway line.

But Coun Simpson-Laing defended the council's gritters and said the authority would "continue to use any information to ensure that roads were free from ice".

She was backed up by Coun Martin Brumby who said many motorists drove at "greatly optimistic speeds".

Coun Simpson-Laing said: "York has many temporal areas. On January 3, the decision was made to grit (the roads) at 4pm based on a localised report from the Met Office.

"York's boundaries are fronted by six other areas - four divisions of North Yorkshire, one East Riding division and a Highways Agency area. They make individual decisions.

"With regards to gritters, the gauges have been recently calibrated and (salt) should have lasted for 24 hours.

"At 5am on January 4, the temperature was rising to minus three, but dropped to minus five until 9am.

"City of York Council grits around 50 per cent of the network and there is a determination to err on the side of caution."

Coun Brumby's view was echoed by an ambulance worker called to an accident on the A59 on January 4.

The paramedic, who did not wish to be named, said drivers were attempting to overtake his ambulance in dangerous conditions - while the vehicle was ferrying an injured patient to hospital.

The worker said: "We attended a number of incidents. On the way back from one of them, we had a queue of four to five cars behind us.

"It wasn't safe to go over 25mph. We had a gentleman try to overtake three cars behind us. As he came alongside the ambulance, he lost control.

"He must have been doing 60mph. Motorists were just not adapting to the conditions. We could have been strewn all over the place. If he had not regained control, he could have taken us out."

Updated: 11:12 Wednesday, January 15, 2003