Kendal will play host this week to a special road show designed to help drivers steer clear of danger as winter sets in.
Visitors to the Asda store at Burton Road, on Monday, 5th December, will get a chance to pick up some potentially life-saving tips on how to cope with wintery conditions.
Experts will be on-hand between 11am and 2pm to offer advice on how to adjust your driving style in icy conditions, how to prepare vehicles for winter and what to carry in case you get stranded.
Organisers Safer Roads for Cumbria are also offering the chance to win a winter driving hamper which includes all sorts of useful stuff such as a torch, blanket, flask, map book, de-icer, triangular hazard warning sign and even a bar of Kendal mint cake.
Everyone who visits the road show will be offered a free windscreen scraper and a copy of Cumbria County Council’s Winter Maintenance leaflet which shows all the priority routes gritted in bad weather.
The road show will be hard to miss as the spot will be marked by one of Cumbria Highways brand new bright yellow gritters.
County councillor Geoff Hodgson, cabinet spokesman for community safety, said:
“We’re well used to hard winters in Cumbria but it’s been a few years since we’ve had a really bad one. What we want to do is remind people of the simple steps they can take to stay safe such as adjusting your driving style to suit the conditions, preparing vehicles properly and taking sensible precautions."
The county has already had a taste of winter this year with frost, freezing fog, black ice and a dusting of snow. Road surface temperatures as low as minus seven degrees centigrade have already been recorded and staff from the county council's Cumbria Highways partnership have been out many times treating roads.
The priority one and two routes in the county total 2,266 km - twice the distance from Land's End to John O'Groats. Each gritting uses more than 300 tonnes of rock salt. Wherever possible these priority one and two roads will be gritted before 8am by winter maintenance crews on call 24 hours a day.
Winter driving tips and full details of the priority routes treated by Cumbria County Council can be seen at http://www.cumbria.gov.uk/roads-transport/driversinf/default.asp