Vod a Jam! 190km Russia Gridlock

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.