Icy conditions meant Airedale Hospital’s accident and emergency department experienced one of its toughest days earlier this month.

Staff dealt with exceptionally large numbers of people on Sunday, December 20, many of whom had fallen while negotiating treacherous surfaces.

Philip Turner, director of service delivery at Airedale NHS Trust, said: “It was one of our busiest days of the year so far in our A&E, with 185 people attending with sprains, fractures and broken bones due to falls and slips in the snowy conditions.

“We are sorry that some patients were waiting longer than we would have liked for treatment and we apologise for these delays.

“Additional doctors were brought into A&E from other departments in the hospital to help.

“Staff worked very hard to treat everyone as soon as they could, while ensuring that any patients with urgent traumas were seen as a priority.”

l Sheet ice made South Street and Halifax Road, between Keighley and Cross Roads, virtually impassable on Tuesday evening last week.

Those caught up in the mayhem included the town’s firefighters, who battled to get to a car accident with people reportedly trapped. Firefighter Peter Craven said: ‘‘In all my 17 years in the fire service I have never seen worse conditions, there were cars going all over the place. We had to stop going up Halifax Road to put our snowchains on, we just couldn’t get any grip.’’ Firefighter Craven added: “Coming back down the hill was horrendous. Our crew had to jump out to run ahead and get drivers to try and clear out of the way, we were just sliding down.

‘‘The road was covered in sheet ice and it was a kind of hail coming down, absolutely treacherous.

‘‘It seemed half of Keighley was stuck. We just want to say a big thank you to all the drivers who were there and were so patient as we tried to do our job.’’ While the Keighley crew was on Halifax Road, firefighters from Silsden had to cover two other shouts on their patch.

At 9.40pm buses got stuck in Halifax Road, at Cross Roads, bringing the village to a standstill.

Police were called and alerted the council which sent out gritters.

Earlier in the evening police also had to turn out to an incident in Scott Street, Keighley, after a black Audi A3 crashed into a cable box — no one was hurt.