A SUDDEN whiteout in the Okehampton area brought chaos to the roads on Tuesday.

Snow fell heavily early in the morning and within hours some routes became impassable while others had to be negotiated with extreme caution.

The A30 dual carriageway was down to single lanes in both directions between Sourton Cross and Whiddon Down, with traffic moving at 10mph in places.

A number of small accidents were reported as vehicles slid to a standstill.

Tony Hazell, proprietor of Carmel Coaches based at Northlew, got three coaches through to Okehampton College ? but another three did not make it.

Two buses that went to Exeter got through and so did the one that went to Launceston.

?One coach with children at Halwill had to be towed out by a farmer with a tractor,? said Mr Hazell, adding it meant a late arrival for the pupils on board.

?The weather was still reasonable at 7.30am and the buses went out, but had we known how the weather would change we would not have sent them,? he said.

The Northlew bus taking pupils to Okehampton College could not get through.

?The road was impassable. The driver had to go down a hill that was blocked by cars and wait for them to be cleared before he could turn the bus around ? but he got back in the end,? said Mr Hazell.

Operational manager of Merton-based Taw and Torridge Coaches, Mark Hunt, said out of 22 school trips, five did not run ? all of them Okehampton bound.

?We have runs that go around Lydford and Bratton Clovelly ? they are byroads and not great at the best of times. The safety aspect was what made us decide not to run,? he said.

Mr Hunt said the company had a ?bad weather procedure? which they put into operation. This involves ringing the schools and Devon County Council which triggers a line of communication to the parents and pupils.

Okehampton College was open but only 30 per cent of the students made it to their classrooms. College principal Chris Powell said most youngsters that did arrive lived in Okehampton.

?Out of about 28 coaches only three or four came in,? he said.

Mr Powell took over the post as head two years ago and said this was the first time he had experienced snow at the college.

?There are standard procedures. The problem was that the snow started about 7.15am. Before that there were only light drifts.?

Throughout the day he kept a close watch on the weather as some pupils and a number of staff had quite long distances to travel.

?We are the second highest catchment area in the country with 630 square miles,? he said, adding that pupils returned home at the normal time.

Okehampton Primary School had comparatively few absentees due to the close proximity of pupils? homes to the school.

Brian Edmunds, manager of A30 Rescue at Betty Cottles Restaurant, Okehampton, said they had been called out to several road accidents and recoveries.

?I came to work at about 7.45am and not too many vehicles had moved around so the roads were passable with care. But between 8am and 9am it got more difficult because more people were going to work and the conditions were worsening minute by minute,? he said.

Sgt Mike Rodway of Okehampton said officers were committed to snow-related incidents most of the day.

A couple of lorries jack-knifed ? one at Northlew and one outside the police station.

?There were approximately eight road traffic accidents but fortunately no injuries. Whiddon Down was the main problem area because of its height.?