BBC Weather forecast: MORE treacherous weather ahead as drivers reveal HORROR stories

A MOTORIST said she thought she was going to die after being trapped in her car on the M80 near Glasgow due to heavy snowfall and blizzard conditions on Wednesday night.

Hundreds of were forced to spend Wednesday night in their vehicles after being trapped by the , despite warnings from the Met Office to only travel unless absolutely necessary.

Huge tailbacks were caused after lorries became jack-knifed and accidents stopped the flow of traffic.

Motorist Lesley Forster, who was caught in the snow, told  News: “It was absolutely horrendous. It just got worse and worse and worse. 18 hours.”

Ms Foster said she thought she was going to die after spending the night in her car in blizzard conditions.

BBC Weather UK snow Met Office today red warningGetty•BBC

BBC weather: Motorist said she thought she was going to die after getting trapped by snow on the M80


Lesley Forster

She said: “The first couple of hours it was ok, it was fine with an amber warning. I’m Scottish, we are used to this type of weather. Then just all of a sudden I was like ‘this is really weird, this is crazy, the road is all jammed up’.”

The motorist said she was “terrified” as she attempted to drive down the road despite not being able to see where she was.

Ms Forster was asked by Victoria Derbyshire why she thought she was going to die. In response, she said: “The snow was drifting. I was the only person that I could see for about two hours.

“On the other side, northbound, there were people there and I was actually screaming out my window for somebody just to help. Nobody could stop and then all of a sudden the northbound, all the traffic disappeared. So that road obviously closed.

“So it took about two hours and then the trucks arrived, they overtook me and then I was able to go behind the trucks again. And less than a mile they were parked up and there for the night.”

Following a red warning that was in place in Scotland until 10:00am (GMT), Police Scotland advised people not to travel unless absolutely necessary. Superintendent Helen Harrison said: “The forecast remains for frequent and heavy snow showers in the amber warning area.

“We are experiencing high levels of disruption on the roads and I would appeal to people not to put themselves and others at risk by travelling on the roads today.”

The force tweeted: "Today's advice: don't travel unless you're an emergency worker. #REDALERT remains till 10am and at best will reduce to Yellow."

Employment lawyer Polly Rodway said employees have a legal obligation to attempt to get to work despite treacherous travel conditions. Ms Rodway said: “Technically the legal position is quite difficult.

“Employees have a duty to try to get to work and if they don’t attend work, technically, that’s an unauthorised absence unless they’ve agreed to it in advance.

“However, common sense often prevails in these sort of situations. We are dealing with very serious circumstances. Employers ultimately have a duty of care to their employees' health and safety.”

BBC Weather forecaster Helen Willetts warned Scotland would see “atrocious” conditions over the coming 24 hours. She said: "It does look as if we will see the continuation of some very disruptive weather, dangerous weather with roads becoming blocked and villages becoming blocked off across the central lowlands and 5cm to 10cm easily here and elsewhere. The western fringes of Scotland the best chance of seeing fewer showers.

“It’s even colder than yesterday, exceptional windchill. With temperatures below freezing so add on the strength of that neat gale force wind for some, it’s more like -10C or -11C.

“As I say some very nasty weather around. Absolutely atrocious.”