A SENIOR fire officer has confirmed that, in his view, it was a miracle no one died in yesterday's pile-up in fog on the A1 (M) in North Yorkshire.

Four people had been killed in similar incidents, which dominated news bulletins the night before.

Even so, drivers still overtook Assistant Divisional Officer Ian Hill as he rushed to the scene of another multiple crash, at Boroughbridge.

"I had my blue lights flashing, the two-tone siren sounding, and my headlights on full beam, but there were still people coming past," he said.

"There are certainly people who were involved in this accident who can consider themselves extremely fortunate. I am very surprised there were no fatalities."

Perhaps the most fortunate was the driver of a Citroen who was able to stop without hitting any of the debris.

He got out of his car and made his way to the grass embankment - just in time to see a lorry plough into his vehicle, crushing it in the collision.

Another lorry driver, Jason Hall, from Sunderland, said he had slowed to about 40mph, but had seen cars travelling at up to 80mph.

Brian Morris, from Ellesmere Port, in Cheshire, said: "It is pure lunacy. Some have total disregard for other road users."

Mike Turner and Leanne Grieve, from Harrogate, said they had helped two people in a van which was on its side on top of central reservation barriers.

"One of them appeared to have a collarbone or an arm broken, and the other one was a bit groggy," said Mr Turner.

AA spokeswoman Denise Raven passed the accident early in the morning.

"The fog was so thick you really couldn't see very much, just blue flashing lights coming out of it," she said.

Among those to escape largely unscathed was a dog, which leapt from the vehicle it had been travelling in.

Firefighters began a search for the Labrador-collie cross in the hope of finding it before it was hit by traffic on the southbound carriageway. It was later rescued close to the nearby A168.

Work on the clear-up continued yesterday afternoon as queues stretched back 16 miles to the south.

Drivers heading for work on Good Friday said journeys on minor roads which normally take minutes took more than an hour. Others had to wait as long as four hours in the tailbacks and race fans travelling from the south arrived too late for the Middleham Stables open day, in Wensleydale.

"We tried to use the A64 near York to skirt around the accident, but it was just as bad," said driver Carol Unwin, who was travelling to the North-East with her partner and two-year-old daughter. "We then got stuck in more traffic as we tried the other way through Harrogate."

* THE Easter holiday got off to a good start on the Yorkshire coast yesterday.

Seafront traders in Scarborough, Filey and Whitby were said to be busy and queues of traffic headed to the coast from Teesside and West and South Yorkshire, for the first holiday of the year.

Hotel and guest house accommodation was said to be at a premium in Whitby, where today the Archbishop of York, Dr David Hope will open a £5.7m visitor centre, close to Whitby Abbey.