CAVE rescue volunteers were called out to help a motorist caught out in the early hours on an icy road between High Bentham and Slaidburn.

A team from the Cave Rescue Organisation responded to a call from Lancashire Police at around 2.30am on Wednesday, December 30 to help the motorist, with two young children in the car, who had become stranded on Lythe Fell Road, about five miles from High Bentham.

A team in two CRO Land Rovers went to the scene and drove the man and children to High Bentham where they were collected by a taxi. The team also came across other abandoned cars on the road, including the AA driver who had earlier helped the motorist, had parked up safely, and bedded down for the night.

A CRO spokesperson said: “The duty controller confirmed their position, using PhoneFind, and took a small team in two Land Rovers, to give assistance. The road was so icy that they stopped 200m short of the car, which was partially in a ditch. Had they been able to recover it to the road, it would probably have slid away on the ice. Man and children were driven to High Bentham to meet a taxi.

“Along the road, nearby, the team discovered three other abandoned cars and the AA van which had previously towed out the subject’s car before it slid off the road for a second time.

“Unlike the drivers of the three abandoned cars, the AA driver was well-prepared. Knowing that he wouldn’t be going anywhere safely before morning, he had curled up in his sleeping bag and gone to sleep, so wasn’t overly impressed to be woken by a bunch of CRO Santa look-alikes at just after 3 am."

Later on December 30, at just after 4pm, the team was called again to help a 50 year old woman who had slipped on steep, frozen ground below Blua Crags, Settle.

The woman, who had a suspected broken ankle, was given pain relief and attention by a YAS paramedic and team doctor before being helped into a casualty bag on a Bell stretcher and sledged down the hillside to a team Land Rover waiting at the top of Banks Lane. She was then driven to Settle, transferred to a YAS road ambulance and taken to hospital.