RAC Lead Patrol Jason Clark certainly went the extra mile last night as he went to help around 200 motorists stranded on the A38/A380. The emergency services took some two - three hours to arrive on the scene.

As the weather closed in Jason joined up with the Highways Agency to see what he could do to assist. They checked with drivers to see how much fuel each vehicle had, gave advice on turning the engine on to warm up vehicles but making sure drivers turned the ignition off fully to prevent flat batteries and specifically checked for anyone with medical needs. Cars that were low on fuel and needed medical helped were marked with special tape on their wing mirrors so that they could be easily identified.

He encountered people who had run their batteries down trying to keep warm so had to jump start them, some people had even managed to lock themselves out of their cars, others ended up building snowmen. He handed out foil blankets to help people keep warm until supplies ran out and was generally looking after people's welfare.

After about six hours motorists' tempers began to get a little heated because no information was being given out by the emergency services.

All in all Jason did an amazing job and he still sounded alert when I spoke to him at 7.45 this morning despite having been on the go since 11am yesterday.