The cold snap claimed its first victims on the roads yesterday when two coaches taking early shifts of foreign workers to a bacon factory collided on an ice-glazed country lane in the Yorkshire Wolds.
The driver of one coach was killed as it slewed into a tree, and 10 out of 45 passengers suffered slight injuries and shock as the other coach spun sideways across the B1248 at Tibthorpe near Driffield.
The injured were mostly among 36 Czech workers in the first coach, operated by Jim Bell Travel of Hull, whose driver died. The other coach, in convoy from Hull to Malton, had nine Portuguese meat workers on board.
Emergency services had difficulty reaching the scene across the cross-country, cut-through route. Humberside police said the lane had been gritted by the local council on Monday, but rain had washed off the treatment. Elsewhere, temperatures were down to -15C (5F) in parts of Scotland, but blizzards failed to progress towards the south.
For the fourth day running, forecasters were left with Macbeth's line "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow", with snow rescheduled to reach most parts tonight.
A spokesman for the Met Office said: "We have had one front from the Arctic, which is beginning to play itself out. But a new front is coming down from the very north of Scotland and the islands. It will be bringing a lot of nasty weather that will gradually spread through the day and the evening."
The collapse of the first front left most of England enjoying bright sunshine all day yesterday, but drivers were warned last night that temperatures were falling again. Much of the Highways Agency's 700-strong national gritter force was out again at dusk.
Milder weather is predicted to bring slush and rain by the weekend, but that did not prevent a kaleidoscopic range of new "big chill" warnings.
Among the more or less bizarre were promotions for weblinks to office computers for employees stranded at home or on public transport - and advice from the RSPCA that relatively hairless breeds of dog such as yorkshire terriers and dobermans should be treated to dog-coats.
And employees at Britain's only working salt mine, at Winsford in Cheshire, are labouring around the clock to meet demand for thousands of tonnes of grit.
