The recent cold weather has seen an increase in work for the breakdown services. The AA attended just under 4,000 breakdowns last week, a 30 percent increase on the week before.
The busiest day was Monday 29 November. With winds blowing in from the Arctic the AA received a call every 30 seconds in the morning rush-hour period.
Freezing temperatures put extra strain on car batteries; on average patrols fitted 15 new batteries a day last week. Other faults included blown ignition fuses, flooded engines, frozen brakes and frozen or broken windscreen wipers. Some drivers simply needed rescuing from being stuck in the snow. The patrols themselves sometimes struggled to get moving having rescued stuck drivers.