According to the Ministry of Transport of the Murmansk Region, a traffic jam occurred the previous day due to a minibus accident on the highway from Teriberka to Murmansk. According to various sources, several dozen cars from 20 to 40 got into traffic jams.
“At around 15:00 on Wednesday, a convoy of cars set off from Teriberka and they already knew that the road closure was planned. For the safety of the passage of the car accompanied by road equipment. During the movement in the 8 km area in the middle of the column, a minibus “turned” and blocked the passage of most cars. The vehicles at the beginning of the colony were able to pass, the rest was left to the help of the minibus driver,” he said.
— Indicated in the message of the Ministry of Transport on the social network “VKontakte”.
The road was closed to traffic at around 16.00 as the weather started to get dark and visibility decreased to zero. Citizens stranded on the road spent the night in cars. Some have been there for more than a day.
The ministry announced that a convoy of 40 vehicles was split into two after the accident. The first group of 12 vehicles managed to reach the 81st kilometer of the road. There the group had to stop as the road merged with the land due to snow. The second group remained near the village in the 8 kilometer area.
Now the road is blocked as it is actively clearing snow. The Ministry of Transport stated that it is almost impossible to clear the snow on the road due to some tourist groups, emphasizing that “all road equipment was thrown to save the tourists in various parts of the road”.
While fuel, food and water were delivered to the people staying on the highway, a warming point was also arranged for them. The road is the only way to get from Murmansk to Teriberka, in winter the route is often closed due to bad weather and zero visibility.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Emergencies of Russia reported that more than 100 people were evacuated from traffic jams. In total, more than 30 cars were stranded on the road, the department said.
Condition on the track
As eyewitnesses involved in traffic jams told socialbites.ca, not everyone has been rescued yet, rescuers and volunteers distribute fuel and food to people.
“We were liberated five minutes before snow captivity, road equipment cleared the way. A spontaneous convoy formed in one-lane traffic, we are moving towards Murmansk. Road equipment made its way to Teriberka, as there were also jammed cars and other jammed road equipment that needed to be salvaged. From the Ministry of Emergencies, they saw two snowmobiles trying to bring fuel and taking 2-3-4 people per hour. We stood for almost 24 hours, ”said one of the participants in the traffic jam.
He also noted that he would leave long beforehand, especially in case the weather deteriorated. “We spent a lot of time getting around the obstacle, getting a car out of the snowdrift. We reached the gate where we encountered the wind, we could not go any further and waited for the road equipment to arrive to rescue us,” he added.
Another eyewitness said that by his estimates there are now about 40 cars left on the road – volunteers delivering sandwiches to them. According to him, the traffic jam on the road was caused by the oncoming traffic flow towards Teriberka. He noted that snowplows got stuck in the snow – trying to dig in on their own. Both interlocutors of socialbites.ca confirmed that they distributed food and fuel to those stranded on the road, but did not see the distribution of water.
“Water was not brought. “Everyone is running out of fuel,” one eyewitness said.