BLIZZARDS created a picturesque winter wonderland for delighted youngsters over the weekend.

But the heavy falls of snow which hit much of the region caused havoc for both motorists and the hordes of Christmas shoppers who ventured out.

Highways departments denied they were caught out by Saturday's sudden white-out which, they said, made attempts to clear roads very difficult.

However, many were critical of the snow-clearing operations, with some main roads still covered with packed snow and ice on Sunday morning. Many pavements also remained ice-bound.

At one stage, police in County Durham issued a message urging motorists not to travel unless their journeys were absolutely necessary.

Police in North Yorkshire reported dealing with 104 accidents on Saturday alone, while other forces were kept busy with a spate of minor incidents.

In the most serious, 39-year-old Deborah Caswell, from Wiltshire, suffered a fractured pelvis and internal injuries when her Ford Sierra went out of control and collided with a Volvo lorry on the A1(M), near the Bowburn interchange, near Durham.

She was detained at the University Hospital of North Durham over the weekend, where her condition was described as "serious but not life-threatening".

Her husband, Richard, 34, the only passenger in the car, suffered cuts and bruises. The lorry driver, a 61-year-old South Shields man, was uninjured.

Firefighters also cut free a motorist after a car lost control and collided with the central reservation, on the northbound carriageway of the A19 in east Durham.

In a further incident on Saturday morning, a Tyne and Wear brigade fire engine went out of control near Heworth Golf Club, Gateshead, and collided with a Ford Fiesta car before hitting a wall, not far from a house. The 30-year-old fire engine driver suffered a broken arm.

Elsewhere in Tyne and Wear, traffic was heavy leading to and from city centres and the MetroCentre, with a number of minor collisions reported on the A1 western bypass leading to the Gateshead shopping complex.

Durham County Council's highways chairman, Sonny Douthwaite, said that gritting wagons had gone out on Saturday morning.

He said: "The snow came down so fast it would have been impossible for the gritters to make any difference."