Icy roads catch everyone out

Several road accidents were reported around the county this morning as motorists around Meath grappled with icy roads. Although motorists were travelling slowly, several vehicles skidded off the road as they hit icy patches. Gardai received reports of at least 11 accidents across the county and, in most cases, these were minor incidents. In a two-vehicle collision in Rathkenny, at around 9.40am, one woman was injured and the road was blocked for a time. At 9.10am there was a collision involving four vehicles at the Kentstown Road, outside Navan. There were no injuries and some minor damage to the vehicles was reported. In the Trim area, there were reports of five accidents, including one where a vehicle turned over and ended up on its roof. Frost had not been forecast and a spokesperson for Meath County Council said that once temperatures dropped below zero on Tuesday)morning, the council's gritting crews were called out. Gritting of designated routes began at 6.30am and the salting of designated routes takes approximately three hours to complete. The council spokesperson said: "The decision to salt roads is taken by the duty engineer and is based on location-specific weather information provided by Met Éireann and a number of local weather stations, which is fed into a computerised information system known as Icecast. "The forecast information provided on Monday afternoon was for no frost across the county. However, temperatures dropped below zero this morning, resulting in an early frost. The gritting crew was called out and salting of the designated routes began at 6.30am."