GRIT rage has gripped Lancashire's roads with drivers of gritting lorries coming under verbal and physical attack from other motorists during the New Year freeze.

As temperatures outside have dropped, the in-car heat has risen as tempers rage, giving way to attacks on the people who have given up their holiday to keep the county's roads safe.

The disturbing trend was revealed by Highways Agency (HA) bosses who said the lorries had to travel at 38 miles an hour, frustrating other road-users stuck behind them.

Highway chiefs have appealed to road-users to show consideration after one gritter driver had a bottle thrown at his wagon.

David Smith, a driver for HA contractors Edmund Nuttall Ltd in Samlesbury, is one of more than 60 drivers who have manned the agency's 21 lorries over the holiday.

The operation has run separately from the town centre road gritting operations co-ordinated by Lancashire County Council and Blackburn with Darwen Council, which have been criticised for not clearing roads quickly enough. He described how his cab was attacked by two youths standing on an overbridge as he gritted lane two on the M6 near Leyland.

"They appeared to be going to wave but as I got closer they threw a bottle and it smashed on the plough," he said.

"And you get the normal verbal abuse and people trying to cut you up. It's road rage, we suffer with it regularly.

"It's been a long fortnight, people have gone without Christmas and New Year to keep the roads open, and that's the thanks you get."

John Mather, HA area manager, said: "Our plea to motorists is to show a bit more consideration to gritter drivers who are doing their best, in difficult situations, to keep the roads safe for them.

"These drivers are away from their homes and families and are out on call 24 hours a day seven days a week. They have been gritting twice a day, in the evening and early hours of the morning over the cold snap." Meanwhile highways chiefs denied that a new lower gauge grit was responsible for this year's prolonged ice problem.

The agency has used six millimetre grit for the first time this year instead of the old 10 mm but say the lorries have been calibrated to give the same coverage and effect.