HEAVY snowfall created traffic chaos in West Devon and East Cornwall on Friday with police having to deal with 15 road traffic collisions and many other snow-related incidents. The majority of accidents were in the Okehampton area with nine reported between midnight and midday and eight other incidents of lorries jacknifing, abandoned vehicles and dangerous driving for the weather conditions. In Tavistock five of the 21 incidents were traffic accidents and there was one accident in Callington. Across the Devon and Cornwall force area, police responded to 90 collisions, one of which involved a motorcyclist at Helston who was killed. Police spokesman PC Terry Hodgson said people had been advised not to travel, but unfortunately many ignored the warnings: ?We asked people to stagger their leaving work times to prevent gridlock on the roads, but we ended up with situations like on Bodmin Moor where we had to evacuate 1,000 motorists,? said PC Terry Hodgson. ?I understand people still need to go about their normal lives but when there is risk of serious injury or life we expect people to respond our message.? PC Hodgson said there were occasions where lorries were sticking into the road because they had tried to drive into a layby and kept sliding away. ?The speed with which the snow came down surprised everyone,? he said. ?It was a bit of a culture shock, but hopefully people will be a bit more cautious next time.? The officer said he was amazed that there were not more serious accidents: ?It was probably down to the fact that no-one could achieve any real speed,? he said. In Callington there were reports of people throwing rock-filled snowballs and a 5ft snowball had been rolled into Saltash Road, causing another hazard: ?I would appeal to the youth of Callington to be a bit more responsible,? he said. ?The police had a huge number of incidents to deal with on Friday but we tried to deal with them as swiftly and safely as we could. ?We are liaising with the Highways Agency and the local authorities to research this amount and see if it can be improved upon.? The snow and subsequent driving conditions meant that many schools in the area closed early with children making the most of the weather by heading onto Dartmoor. Robert Steemson from Dartmoor National Park said it was unusual to have a heavy snowfall before Christmas. He said: ?This caused an early morning distribution to villages and towns in the area but once the schools were closed the children used their day off to snowboard and toboggan,? he said. ?Everybody was enjoying themselves and this continued into Saturday because there was still a lot of snow around.?