HEATING the roads, manual gritters and winter tyres have all been put forward by experts as ideas to avoid accidents on icy roads.

Despite being gritted, sheets of ice covered the county’s roads yesterday morning resulting in cars spinning out of control, vans ending up in fields, cars in gardens and miles of queuing traffic.

East and West Sussex County Councils and Highways England all sent out their gritter trucks on Thursday night but roads were still described as ice rinks hours later and motorists have called for more to be done.

Steve Percy of the People’s Parking Protest said: “Whatever they’re doing it’s not enough.

“If it’s not doing the job, they’re not fit for purpose.

“There’s a duty of care that the roads don’t get left icy.

“They have to defreeze it, whether that’s in cars, lorries, shovels – it’s their duty to make sure roads are free of ice.

“If that means they go out with a contraption with a heater or a sweeper going behind the lorries, so be it.”

Roger Williams, East Sussex County Council’s head of highways, offered his own advice urging drivers to slow down and ensure their car was properly prepared to drive in the icy conditions.

He said: “With temperatures falling as low as minus five degrees, our gritters have been out and about around the county every day this week.

“However, we are not able to grit every road in East Sussex and grit is not magic dust – while it reduces the risk of freezing it can never completely eradicate the risk.”

“Black ice is not always visible but it can be deadly, so it’s vitally important that people slow down and drive to the conditions.”

Mechanic Mark Bailey of Bailey’s Garage in Cambridge Grove, Hove, said the only answer was to get drivers on winter tyres.

“I think that’s the only way they could do,” he said.

“There’s no other way they can go.”

The issue follows the tragic death of 21-year-old Brianna Cambridge on Monday morning as witnesses reported ice on the A23 at Pyecombe.