GAIL Parsons says her elderly parents-in-law could have easily frozen to death in a ditch after their car skidded off a road in freezing conditions on Saturday.

Edward and Gladys Parsons and their daughter Sue were driving home to Bristol from Gail's home in Chippenham, when their car left the road at a series of sharp bends at Ford.

Edward, 74, who has asthma, his wife Gladys, 69 and their 49 year-old daughter Sue, ended up stranded in the ditch and trapped in their car.

If it had not been for another motorist passing at the time who alerted police, the family could have been stuck there all night, out of view of any passing drivers.

Now Mrs Parsons wants to know what the highways department plan to do about the notorious stretch and says a lack of regular road gritting means playing with people's lives.

"The car went down the ravine and ended up at a 45 degree angle," said Mrs Parsons.

"My father-in-law is 74 and suffers from asthma and wouldn't have been able to climb out by himself.

"A guardian angel must have been looking over them because they were being followed by another car which saw them go off the road.

"But none of them could get out of the vehicle or up the slope."

Firefighters had to help the three passengers out of the car through the passenger door window, and use ladders to get them up from the ditch and onto the roadside.

"They could have frozen to death that night," Mrs Parsons said.

She is furious because she says the road was not gritted at the time and there were no crash barriers to stop the vehicle ploughing down the ravine.

"I want to know who makes these decisions whether or not to grit the road.

"I hope whoever it is has a very big conscience because you hardly ever see the gritters out these days.

"It used to be a regular thing but now I suppose there's not enough funding."

Mrs Parsons said when she spoke to Wiltshire County Council's highways department she was told the road had not been gritted. But highways officer Emil Raubenheimer said the road had been gritted by 8pm that evening and said crash barriers would not solve the problem.

"What I'm looking for in the future is resurfacing on those bends."

Mr Raubenheimer said the stretch would be added to the list for resurfacing when the next principal road-resurfacing budget came up next year.

"In terms of gritting, we have a consultant who decides if the gritters go out.

"It costs approximately £15-20,000 every time we send them out.

"Sometimes we rely on the fact the road has been gritted one or two days before and some of the grit will still be there. It's not a case that we're not doing it because we don't have enough money."