As temperatures dropped to well below zero yesterday the death toll linked to the icy conditions rose to 15 amid further travel chaos. Roads have been made particularly dangerous across the country as the artic cold winds have engulfed the entire region.

A coach crashed outside of Penzance on Tuesday night killing to passengers on board. The two elderly women were returning with a group from a Womens Institute day trip to see the Christmas lights at the coastal town of Mousehole. The coach came off the road in icy condition and turned over down a ditch. The rescue operation took over four hours and helicopters were used to transport the seriously injured. A police car that was attending the accident also run off the road in the icy conditions.

In the hilly town of High Wycombe a man was left in the snow dying of a suspected heart attack because an ambulance could not make it up the icy slope to where he was lying. Neighbours who had phoned for rescue services had covered the man with blankets to try and keep him warm until a 4X4 ambulance car arrived on the scene.

The extra bad road conditions are being blamed on the transport authority for not having the roads gritted in time. With these accidents and the closures of airports, train services and roads, Lord Adonis, the transport secretary, is being asked to come back from his winter break in Austria to sort out the mess the country has fallen in to.