A major incident has been declared in the UK after a double-decker bus overturned in a crash involving a motorcycle.
Avon and Somerset Police said the A39 Quantock Road in Bridgwater has been closed.
A spokesman said: “A significant number of police, fire and ambulance units are on the scene and a major incident has been declared.”
⚠️ Along with other emergency services, we’re attending a road-related incident on the A39 Quantock Road, in Bridgwater. ⚠️
⛔️This road remains closed and you should find an alternative route. ⛔️
Further details to follow. 🔽— South Western Ambulance Service (@swasFT) January 17, 2023
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Emergency services were called at around 6am on Tuesday.
Closures are in place at the junction of Sandford Hill and Quantock Road.
In the early hours of Tuesday, police urged people to “please only travel if it is absolutely essential” as they received more than 100 reports of road-related incidents in five hours.
They said: “Conditions are extremely icy and dangerous due to the freezing conditions overnight and residual water on the road from the past week’s wet weather.”
A total of 53 crashes were reported to police between 6pm and 11pm on Monday, most of them due to the freezing weather causing dangerous driving conditions.
Following an increased number of road-related incidents overnight, we are advising people to only travel if essential.
We received more than 100 reports in 5 hours as a result of 'treacherous conditions' from freezing temperatures and water on the road.https://t.co/OTvDnHDtTl— Avon and Somerset Police (@ASPolice) January 17, 2023
Seven of these incidents were reported to have resulted in injuries, but they are not thought to be serious, police said.
A further 67 calls concerned other road-related incidents.
Superintendent Mark Runacres said: “We are advising the public to only travel where absolutely essential due to the treacherous driving conditions.
“If travel is necessary, we ask the public to take extreme caution and allow additional time to travel.
“We have seen a significantly higher number of road-related collisions and incidents in the past 12 hours, which has increased the demand on police resources.
“We are working with local authorities and National Highways to ensure roads are properly gritted ahead of the rush-hour traffic to improve driving conditions.”
