Blizzard Traps Thousands Of Freezing Russian Motorists In 3-Day Traffic Jam
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Thousands of vehicles – including some 4,000 trucks – were caught in a three-day traffic jam along the M10 highway from Moscow to St. Petersburg over the weekend, reported Reuters, after a heavy snowstorm paralysed traffic conditions for a stretch of up to 200km.
Thousands of vehicles – including some 4,000 trucks – were caught in a three-day traffic jam along the M10 highway from Moscow to St. Petersburg over the weekend, reported Reuters, after a heavy snowstorm paralysed traffic conditions for a stretch of up to 200km.
Reports on the scene suggested that many motorists were forced to fend for themselves, as even emergency assistance to feed famished drivers was shortcoming, with some drivers huddling among themselves in the cold, while others kept warm in their own vehicles until they ran out of gasoline.
[quote]”Drivers help one another and that’s it, the problems are on the side of the authorities, there are no gasoline tankers, no water, nothing, we are just stuck here,” a truck driver who identified himself as Sergei told Rossiya 24 TV channel.[/quote]The New York Times also reported that roadside cafes were raising the prices dramatically for sausages and bread, while the price of cigarettes was said to have shot up nearly ten-fold.
The M-10 highway is one of the most widely used roads in Russia, with trucks often carrying goods between the nation’s largest cities. Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev, after the jam had cleared up, called for an “analysis” of road cleaning services on to prevent a repeat of the jam.
[quote]“It’s understood that snow is inevitable but it’s necessary to act effectively and try not to allow jams like this from happening in such altogether difficult places,” Medvedev said, as cited by The Financial Times.[/quote]Related: To Russia With Love: Opportunities From Russia’s Accession To The WTO
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Other Russians however blamed authorities for failing to act quickly in the emergency; and also criticised the failure to improve road infrastructure. According to Reuters, Russia’s roads have around since Tsarist times and its infrastructure has been plagued with problems since the Soviet era.
[quote]“We called all night to the Ministry of Emergency Affairs in Moscow and in Tver,” said a driver to radio station Kommersant-FM, as cited by NYT. “Everyone said, ‘Guys, we know what’s happening, but we can’t help you with anything.’ ”[/quote]And even Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin seemed to acknowledge the government failure, though he blamed the “ineffective work of road services” for the traffic jam.
“At the start of the snowfall, not even a half of the available technical hardware was used,” said Rogozin, according to the Wall Street Journal. “Many drivers were stuck without provisions and fuel in the middle of a forest.”
[quote]“The road, let’s put it that way, is not a European one. It’s Russian-like, forested, dark and snowed in,” Rogozin criticised.[/quote]
Watch Reports & Footage Of The Traffic Jam:
