COUNCIL bosses today reassured the family of a tragic taxi driver that the road where he died had been treated for icy conditions.

The grieving family of Munawar Hussain, 44, who died after his taxi skidded and smashed into a wall, in Burnley Road Loveclough, Rossendale, during icy conditions early on Sunday morning, wanted to know if the road had been gritted earlier that day.

But council chiefs today moved to reassure the family that normal procedures were carried out by gritting staff and confirmed the road had been treated.

Mr Hussain's family have been left devastated by his death and were hit by a second tragedy when his older brother, Khamid, 48, also a taxi driver, collapsed and died of a suspected heart attack when he learned of the crash.

The accident happened when Munawar, lost control of his Hackney carriage, as he made his way back to Burnley at 1.40am. David Harrison, highways assistant engineer at Rossendale Council, said: "The council carried out a pre-grit of all the main roads, which included the one in Loveclough up to the boundary with Burnley.

"This started at 6pm on the Saturday but we can change the times depending on the weather conditions. If it's raining then we can put it back until later, usually about 10pm at the latest, but on this night we carried out a pre-grit at 6pm.

"If we know there will be ice we will do a precautionary grit, normally at 6pm, or if we get snow we react to that. Likewise, if we get calls from the police or public we react to that as well."

Neighbours today said the two families had travelled out to Pakistan to be with relatives following the brothers' double funeral held at the Mosque in Colne Road, Burnley, on Monday. The bodies were flown to Pakistan for burial .

An inquest into the death of Munawar has been adjourned for the results of toxicology tests.