Snow traps drivers for days in giant Russia traffic jam

[Tadakatsu Honda]

Snow traps drivers for days in giant Russia traffic jam

MOSCOW | Sun Dec 2, 2012 1:18pm EST

(Reuters) - Thousands of trucks and cars have been stuck on a major highway, some for more than two days, in a traffic jam dozens of kilometers (miles) long caused by heavy snow northwest of Moscow, Russian media reported on Sunday.

Police in the Tver region said field kitchens were operating on the road, but many drivers complained supplies never reached them and they were running out of gasoline to keep their engines running and heating on in subzero temperatures.

"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.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev dispatched Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov to Tver on Sunday for a meeting on the situation, and Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin was ordered to report to Medvedev on Monday on measures to end the jam and help stranded motorists, Medvedev's spokeswoman said.

Reports put the length of the traffic jam at between 40 km and 200 km (120 miles) at different times on Sunday. One man told the state broadcaster he had advanced one kilometer over the previous 24 hours.

"The reach of the traffic jam at present is no longer than 55 km and is gradually falling," Interfax news agency quoted a police official as saying on Sunday evening.

Russian authorities have been accused of sluggish responses to weather-related problems including deadly wildfires in 2010 and flooding in the south this summer.

Officials are jumpy about their jobs after President Vladimir Putin's dismissal of the regional development minister in October and Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov last month.

The M-10 highway links Moscow with Russia's second largest city St Petersburg, some 700 km northwest of the capital, and stretches on to the border with Finland.

Russia's roads have been the butt of criticism since Tsarist times and its infrastructure has been plagued with problems since the Soviet era, when defense spending was high at the expense of roads, housing, healthcare and other civilian needs.

(Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Sophie Hares)

 

[Nu Wa]

Russia has 190km traffic jam as 4000 trucks stuck on key highway

Stuart Williams
AFP December 04, 201212:11AM

An image grab taken from a video reportedly taken on Friday and uploaded on YouTube shows trucks caught in a traffic jam sparked by heavy snowfall on a highway connecting Moscow with St Petersburg. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

THE Russian government has admitted it has to improve road services after a 190-kilometre traffic jam involving more than 4000 trucks paralysed circulation on a key highway over the weekend.

According to Russian media, some drivers were stuck motionless in a remote part of the M-10 motorway surrounded by forest for up to 44 hours after heavy snow caused the traffic to build up.

Officials said that traffic on the M-10 motorway north of Moscow had been moving normally again since the early hours of Monday but acknowledged more needed to be done to prevent a repeat of the problems.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, the government pointman on transport issues, said it was clear road services had not worked effectively after traffic built up for 190 kilometres.

"At the start of the snowfall, not even a half of the available technical hardware was used," he told Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

"Many drivers were stuck without provisions and fuel in the middle of a forest. This is not a European road but a Russian one, a forest road," he said.

Emergency Situations Minister Vladimir Puchkov described the problems as "a good lesson for all the services".

"They need to work on the roads and not in their warm offices," he warned.

Thousands of drivers waited for hours without moving in their lorry cabs Sunday in temperatures of minus five degrees Celsius.

Officials claimed that they had been given enough provisions but Mr Puchkov admitted this had not always been the case.

"We had problems from the point of view of the highway services and ensuring that drivers had food, water and medication," he said.

Mr Puchkov added: "Systems of keeping the drivers informed were not ready."

The traffic jam was caused by a heavy snowfall - unusually severe for early winter - late on Friday and was further complicated when the authorities manoeuvred a snow plough through the vehicles to clear the road.

According to the interior ministry, the traffic jam extended to 190 kilometres and involved more than 4000 trucks.

Mr Medvedev said that the road services needed to work efficiently and prevent such incidents from happening.

But the prime minister appeared to admit that such problems were inevitable given Russia's harsh climatic conditions.

"Drivers need to be prepared for the fact that the weather in our country is very, very complicated and there is always going to be snow," Mr Medvedev said on television.

Traffic police said Monday that average speeds had by late morning returned to the normal 80km/h after the vehicles started moving.

The M-10 motorway - known as the "Russia" highway - connects Moscow and Saint Petersburg and is one of the busiest in the country. It goes through the Tver region 160 kilometres north of Moscow where the traffic jam was at its worst.

The state RIA Novosti news agency said that by the afternoon a new traffic jam was starting to form on the highway just outside the city of Tver as weather forecasters warned of a heavy evening snowfall.

 

[EstherO]

Call this as the mother of all traffic jams!It lasted from Friday until Monday and 125 miles long.Just imagine that long hour be in the middle of the highway.Much of the infrastructure in Russia is of poorly-maintained,Soviet-era construction.Much of it remains inadequate for the volume of traffic it supports today.Traffic jams are a daily occurrence in the region.More here:Russian traffic jam stretches 125 miles