A family was rescued by Ivdel traffic police after facing lethal cold in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, with temperatures plunging to minus 30 degrees. This update comes from Valery Gorelykh, who heads the press service at the Sverdlovsk Region’s Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The incident involved a couple from Surgut en route to relatives in the Perm Territory in a Mazda 6. About five kilometers outside Ivdel, their car broke down as the engine stalled and the hydraulic power assist failed. Desperate for help, they approached onlookers, but one person did not have a jump lead and another passerby declined to assist.
During a routine patrol, traffic inspectors spotted the stranded Mazda and stepped in to assist. They ensured the couple could reach a safe place, arranged shelter at a hotel, and towed the broken vehicle to the nearest service center for repairs. By the following day, the couple from Surgut was back on the road in a repaired car.
Earlier reports noted a Chelyabinsk region resident nearly freezing in a vehicle after running out of fuel on the highway, and that a deaf and mute pair of spouses narrowly escaped freezing near Omsk. (Source: Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Sverdlovsk Region)