Road may be gritted after accident

Highways officials last night agreed to consider gritting a road which has become a blackspot in icy weather after a mother and her eight-year-old son spun off and their car ended up on its side.

Highways officials agreed to consider gritting a road which has become a blackspot in icy weather after a mother and her eight-year-old son spun off and their car ended up on its side.

Sarah Wheeler, 31, has been left with head and neck injuries after being freed by firefighters between Tittleshall and Fakenham as she took her son Charlie to school.

She was told there had been 15 accidents on the section of road in the past year.

The road - which carries school buses - is salted up to Tittleshall from Litcham but not between the village and Fakenham.

Mrs Wheeler - whose four-month old Suzuki 4x4 is likely to be written off - said: 'If it had been a school bus I dread to think what would have happened. I caught the ice and slipped and before we knew it we were spinning and hit the bank and on to the other side of the road and went on to its side. We didn't stand a chance.'

Police officers struggled to stand up when they arrived due to the ice.

Police sent a report to Norfolk County Council asking officials to consider gritting the road.

John Longhurst, head of highway operational services for the county council, said: 'Norfolk County Council grits more than 2,000 miles of roads in Norfolk every time our teams are deployed during the winter months. We review these routes on an annual basis and prioritise them using criteria such as levels of road usage.

'We welcome feedback from members of the public and organisations including the police as this is important when we are putting the plan together for the next year and we will be looking at this road to see if it should be added to the route.'

Road policing officer PC Keith Sainsbury confirmed he had contacted the highways department to see if the route could be included on the gritting run.

'The road was very slippery, there is no doubt about it.'

Mrs Wheeler was less than half a mile from her Tittleshall home when the crash happened at about 8am on Tuesday last week and was travelling at about 20mph.

A passer-by stopped and opened the hatch and got Charlie out but Mrs Wheeler was trapped.

Part of the car had to be cut off and she had to be put on a spinal board.

She said she was 'really proud' of how Charlie had dealt with the aftermath of the collision

Her husband Shaun, 44, had a crash on the same stretch two weeks ago.

To find gritted routes go to the Norfolk County Council website www.norfolk.gov.uk