BUSES were cancelled between Highgate and Muswell Hill last night after a bus skidded on an icy road bringing yet more chaos to the borough s highways. The 210 vehicle crashed into a pavement on Highgate Hill and five double-decker buses wer

Dina Rickman

BUSES were cancelled between Highgate and Muswell Hill last night after a bus skidded on an icy road bringing yet more chaos to the borough's highways.

The 210 vehicle crashed into a pavement on Highgate Hill and five double-decker buses were forced to stop at the top of the hill to avoid the treacherous road.

No-one was hurt in the accident which happened at around 4pm.

The driver, Augustine Anthony, said: "I've been driving buses for three years and I've never seen anything like this before."

Another bus driver who preferred not to be named said:

"No one knows what to do now - it's a mess, the roads are too slippy."

Meanwhile Haringey Council was forced to fend off criticism over its gritting methods after 12 hours of heavy snowfall on Wednesday.

Gill Livingston, a doctor from nearby Whittington hospital who witnessed the accident, said: "I think that it's quite frightening, the bus could have killed people from skidding on to the pavement. They're lucky no one was hurt."

And Gina Odysseous, a receptionist at nearby cosmetics shop Face it said: "This has happened before. I think the roads should have been gritted it's a very steep hill."

Richard De Freitas, 24, of Cromwell Avenue, stopped to take pictures of the bus on the pavement.

He said: "All I can say is council tax at �223 a month you'd think they'd cover salting the roads."

George Crawford was forced to walk home in the snow after his bus was cancelled: "Before Christmas lots of buses were conked out in the Archway Road and the same thing happened last night," he said. "There were about six or seven buses conked out, it meant anybody travelling from Archway to Frien Barnet had to walk. The 143 and 43 buses all stopped."

"The last time this happened it was atrocious and it's disgraceful for people to be so inconvenienced again."

A spokeswoman for Haringey council said: "Highgate Hill is a priority one route, so is being regularly gritted. In the last 24 hours it has been gritted three times - yesterday afternoon, yesterday evening and in the early hours of this morning.

"Gritters are working through the night to keep Haringey's roads clear, but drivers are urged to continue to drive with care while icy conditions persist."

The incident comes just two weeks after Ham&High Broadway reported that buses were being grounded in Muswell Hill during the last cold snap.