A Nightmare on St Peter's Hill.

I arrive back in Reading.

The snow and extreme "Cold Snap" in the area has created chaos on the roads.

It wasn't like this in Norfolk!

My daughter (together with my granddaughters) brave the conditions to collect me from the railway station and we start out for Woodcote.

As we turn into St Peter's Hill in Caversham, the traffic is slipping and sliding, all over the place.

We too start to lose traction and successfully break our clutch. It's not as hard as you might think to blow up your clutch, and for those "expert" drivers reading, the conditions were atrocious.

It's chaos both for us and many below us on the hill. As we await the police, more and more cars are sliding down the hill, crashing into each other.

As some really community spirited people rally to help us, a car slides across the road at speed, and smashes between us and the wall of a property almost wiping out a man who's trying to secure a tow rope on our car.

It stops, only after hitting a police van and the opposite kerb.

Scarey.

The police manage to tow us to a position of safety.

My granddaughters shelter in the warmth of the police van.

A friend with a 4x4 comes to collect us, as the local authority gritting vehicle suddenly appears and makes 6 ascents/descents, spraying a mixture of salt and grit.

Needless to say, the hill almost immediately has lost its treacherous surface of ice and snow.

Why wasn't this done earlier?

That question will most probably never be answered.

Reading Council need to anticipate more and plan better.

How much will our car repair cost? I shudder to even think. I fear the worst.

Could we, should we, have done things differently? Pointless question really.

But.

My faith in community has had a huge positive boost, having experienced kindness and thoughtlessness from so many complete strangers.

The police officers were nothing short of stars.

We have to find the lady who gave us a blanket and hot water bottle. A true Samaritan.

What a 3.5 hours of life.

Not to be repeated.