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http://icnorthwales.icnetwork.co.uk/dailypost/news/wales/tm_headline=police-didn--8217-t-warn-council-of-icy-road%26method=full%26objectid=19268855%26siteid=50142-name_page.html

Police didn’t warn council of icy road
Jun 9 2007

by Roland Hughes, Daily Post


POLICE did not tell a council about four crashes and near-misses on icy roads leading up to the Rhyl cycling tragedy, an inquest heard yesterday.

Four drivers – including three police officers – skidded on roads on or near the A547 in the hours leading up to last January’s tragedy.

But police did not think it necessary to tell Conwy county council’s highways department the roads should be gritted.

This was despite one accident happening within Conwy’s boundary, two occurring metres from the county boundary, and one occurring a mile away from the boundary in Denbighshire.

The only time police rang Conwy’s highways staff was when a car skidded on ice more than two miles away.

The fifth day of the inquest into the cyclists’ death heard police had no fixed policy on alerting highways chiefs to icy roads, but that it was “expected” of them.

The jury heard a statement from a police officer who skidded on the Denbighshire side of Borth crossroads – half a mile from the tragedy just over the Denbighshire boundary.

At around 3.30am, he called the control room to tell them “the road is like glass here...I’m not sure if it’s policy to call out the council”.

Neither Denbighshire nor Conwy, whose boundary was only metres away, were alerted by police to the icy conditions.

At around 5.30am, an off-duty police officer also lost control on the Borth crossroads, only metres inside the Denbighshire boundary.

Again, neither Denbighshire nor Conwy’s highways departments were alerted to the conditions.

At around 6.45am, another off-duty police officer came off the A525, a mile from the tragedy. Again, highway authorities were not informed.

The only time highway officials were contacted was at around 8.50am, after two cars skidded on ice at a bridge in Towyn.

A police control room worker mistakenly called Denbighshire, wrongly saying the accident occurred on the Foryd Bridge in Kinmel Bay.

After being corrected, she rang Conwy’s highways department.

When explaining it was a woman who had called police after skidding in Towyn, transcripts showed highways worker Robert Emlyn Williams said: “Well that explains it all.”

The transcript of the conversation showed Mr Williams told the police control worker: “It should have been gritted. It was, it would have been done last night and this morning.

“I will get somebody to have a look at it.”

When a Citroen Saxo crashed in the hour before the tragedy at exactly the same spot, police again did not call Conwy, believing the matter was now in their hands.

Inspector Jane Banham, who was manning the control room at the time, said: “I would have expected [Conwy gritters] to go to the location we had asked them to [Towyn] and made a general overview of the whole area.”

Will Hoskins, representing the families, said: “If calls had been made to Conwy at 3.30am and 5.30am, it would have been possible to get the gritters out much earlier.”

The cyclists who died were Thomas Harland, 14, Dave Horrocks, 55, Wayne Wilkes, 42, and club chairman Maurice Broadbent, 61.

I'd say there was some conflict between the above article and this one from the BBC news

_________________
Useless laws weaken necessary laws.

As reported by the Daily Post on Friday:

Council was told to grit roads
Jun 8 2007


By Roland Hughes


A council was told to grit dangerous icy roads near the A547 in the hours before the Rhyl Cycling Club tragedy.

North Wales Police Inspector Jane Banham, who was heading the control room at the time of the accident, gave evidence on the fifth day of the inquest this morning.

She highlighted a previous skid on a bridge in nearby Towyn at 8.10am.

When Conwy Council was told about the road needed gritting immediately police were told "it would have been done last night and again this morning, I will get someone to have a look at it."

At 9.09am the need for gritting on the A547 was again highlighted to police.

Police assumed Conwy highways authority would carry out an inspection of that area as well.

The inquest also heard North Wales Police has no fixed policy as to whether they should inform highways authorities as to the need for gritting.