As snow caused chaos across Sussex last night, reporter Jasmin Martin was forced to abandon her car due to the treacherous conditions.
The 20-year-old was travelling from the County Times’ offices in Horsham back home to Brighton when the weather made it too dangerous to continue. She explains:
“I rang my mum around 4:15pm to tell her I was leaving early before it started getting dark as the snow was becoming increasingly worse, but at that time there was no snow laying on the roads.
“As I got on to the A272 near Bolney the roads were becoming completely covered and the wind was making it impossible to see.
“Turning the corner onto the A23 it became clear that there was no grit down, no one was venturing into the right hand lane, road markings had disappeared and we were crawling all the way along on to the A27 where my car span about 45 degrees twice.
“I just rolled down the hill, my brakes wouldn’t work and I have no idea how I managed to control it.
“It was terrifying and my legs were shaking. Up ahead I could see two cars that had gone into each other trying to get up the hill.
“Turning off at the A293 Portslade exit, a bus had careered across a road causing diversions. It happened on an incredibly steep hill on Fox Way where I had to eventually abandon my car. The wheels were turning but I was just going backwards. My dad came to help with his work van but then had to also abandon it.
“People were towing each other and I saw a parked van just take off down a hill and then crash into another parked car.
“I was lucky I left when I did, people and many colleagues had it much worse.”
How badly were you affected? Let us know your stories by emailing ct.news@sussexnewspapers.co.uk