An Edgware dentist took eight-and-a-half hours to get home from her East Barnet surgery on Thursday evening after snow turned a hilly arterial road into an ice rink.

Maya Shah, of Hillersden Avenue, said schoolgirls walking from Apex Corner warned her of pile-ups further down Totteridge Lane as ice made the steep and winding road a treacherous drive.

"I was scared. There were sheets of ice and cars were sliding down hills into one another," she said.

Ms Shah turned back and stopped at a restaurant in Whetstone to share horror stories with other stranded travellers before setting out again at 10pm.

She eventually arrived home from the dental surgery in Longmore Avenue at 2.30am after sitting in Deansbrook Lane for two hours.

"There was an ambulance stuck in traffic there. It was trying to go the wrong way around a mini-roundabout. I was so angry.

"The one day it has snowed so heavily in the past five years and nothing seemed to have been done," she said.

Edgware was among the worst-hit parts of the borough in Thursday's snowstorms. Northern Line trains destined for Edgware terminated at Golders Green and passengers left buses and walked as traffic in the area ground to a standstill.

January 31, 2003 14:00