Third day of heavy snow paralyses traffic over eastern border

Line of trucks at Vaalimaa reaches new record of 45 kilometres

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The third day of heavy snow paralysed the heavy goods traffic over the eastern on Thursday. The crossing points of Imatra and Nuijamaa were closed entirely, and at Vaalimaa, the line of trucks was as long as 45 kilometres last night, stretching past the City of Hamina.
      A fierce blizzard and slippery roads seriously hampered traffic in Southeastern Finland. The heaviest snowfall occurred in Southern Karelia, with a snow cover of 50 centimetres. In particular the crossing of the border to Russia got completely tangled, and in order to avoid further accidents, the police asked the Southeast Border Guard District to halt the inbound traffic for a couple of hours.
     
The most serious accident occurred on Highway 6 in Lappeenranta on Thursday afernoon. The driver of a SUV died in a head-on collision with a truck. The vehicle, on its way to Russia using temporary plates, had summer tyres.
      On Highway 7, the heavy traffic slowed down the operation of emergency vehicles.
      Another accident occurred in Virolahti in the morning, when a bus collided with a livestock transporter. Ten bus passengers were slightly injured, while neither the driver of the other vehicle nor the animals were hurt.
     
The Russian Frontier Service asked the Finnish authorities to shut down the traffic over the Nuijamaa crossing point entirely as of Wednesday night, because of the heavy snow and slippery roads in Russia.
      The maintenance of the road from Lappeenranta over the border belongs to the Finns, but following a difference of opinion concerning the interpretation of permits, the Finnish vehicles equipped with snowploughs were not allowed to cross the border until the authorities of Southeastern Finland and the Vyborg region in Russia managed to reach a solution whereby a temporary permit could be granted.
      The chaos on the roads was made even worse by a power failure at the Russian border crossing station across the border at Nuijamaa, which lasted for 48 hours.
      Moreover, also the border crossing station of Svetogorsk opposite to the City of Imatra was closed for a few hours on Thursday morning.
     
Rail traffic was affected particularly between Kouvola and Joensuu as well as along the Kouvola-Vainikkala track. While the trains operating between Helsinki and Joensuu were delayed by 30 to 120 minutes, the cargo traffic came to an almost complete standstill as a result of the blizzard conditions.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Blizzard brings up to 30 centimetres of snow - traffic badly hit again (2.11.2006)
  Finland wants Russia to drop all border-crossing fees (26.10.2006)

Links:
  Finnish Meteorological Institute
  The Border Guard

Helsingin Sanomat