MOSCOW,
Russia - The Russian government has admitted that road services should be
better prepared after a 190km horror traffic jam involving more than 4000
trucks paralysed a key highway.
Officials said
traffic on the M-10 freeway north of Moscow (which connects Moscow with St
Petersburg.) 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.
Emergency
Situations Minister Vladimir Puchkov stated the following at a government
meeting:
"I
ask that conclusions are made and the highway is properly prepared as winter
has only just started. What happened is a good lesson for all the services.
They need to work on the roads and not in their warm offices."
STATIONARY TRUCKS
Thousands of
drivers waited for hours in stationary trucks on Sunday, 2nd Dec 2012, in
temperatures of -5C.Officials claimed that they had been given enough
provisions but 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.” Puchkov had further added that systems of keeping
the drivers informed were not ready to be implemented.
190KM STANDSTILL
According to the interior ministry; the traffic jam extended to 190km and involved more than 4000 trucks.
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.
Traffic police said average speeds returned to the normal 80km/h after the vehicles started moving at 2.30am on Monday.