Mountain rescue teams called out to rescue stranded drivers and ambulances

A lorry driver has been rescued from his stranded truck after enduring a night on the Woodhead Pass, a mountain rescue team said.

The Woodhead Mountain Rescue Team said the Arctic conditions have seen their volunteers called out to a range of incidents as the snow left roads impassable.

As well as coming to the aid of the lorry driver stuck high on the Sheffield to Manchester route, the team also went and spent most of Thursday checking dozens of abandoned cars on Pennine roads.

Spokesman Paul Besley said the trucker was very pleased to see his colleagues after spending a shivering Wednesday night close to the summit of the pass near the turn-off to Dunford Bridge in South Yorkshire.

Mr Besley said: "He'd got himself well and truly stuck.

"He was very glad to see the team. He wasn't in any real danger but he was very cold and in need of food and a drink."

Mr Besley said the team received a request from the ambulance service on Tuesday night to locate a family who were trying to reach the hospital with a young child having breathing difficulties.

He said an ambulance could not reach the family's car which had become stranded in the snow in the High Hoyland area, between Penistone and Barnsley.

They were transferred to a clear road using the team's Land Rover

The child's father posted on the team's Facebook page: "I didn't have a chance to say thank you and say that you chaps are heroes."
Mr Besley said his team has had numerous calls from the public asking if its safe to venture into the hills.

He said the answer is a definite "no".

The team's colleagues from the Edale Mountain Rescue Team have also been busy during the cold snap.

On Tuesday this team came to the aid of an ambulance stranded on a snowy Sheffield street and carried a woman from Meersbrook Park, in the city, after she dislocated her knee.