Prague, Jan 4 (CTK) – Transport in the Czech Republic is complicated by the snow whose cover has reached several centimetres to half a metre and that fell almost across the whole country last night, with problems primarily faced by the lorries that have got stuck in hilly areas.
Some roads had to be closed because of the snow and several train connections did not operate in the country.
The number of road accident was relatively high, however, mostly with no serious injuries, except for a collision that claimed one life near Chrudim, east Bohemia, in the evening. A man whose car veered off the icy road was hit by another skidding vehicle after he got out of his car. The man died when he was driven to hospital.
The snow blanket is the highest in the Giant Mountains in east Bohemia.
Snow complicated transport primarily in the Liberec Region, where five to 40-50 centimetres of snow have fallen and it keeps snowing there.
A fallen tree stopped transport on the rail track between Jedlova and Svor in north Bohemia. A rapid train drove into a fallen tree, but there were no injuries.
There are a number of fallen trees on rail tracks. Firefighters are removing them. The trees fell either due to wind gusts or under the weight of the snow.
In the Liberec Region alone, firefighters were called in to 22 such cases between midnight and 7:00 CET.
A similar situation with fallen trees was in Central Bohemia with 19 firefighters’ interventions. In the whole of the Czech Republic, firefighters had to be called in 77 times to remove the fallen trees.
Dense snow has also afflicted the Hradec Kralove Region, where the situation is difficult on roads especially between the towns of Hradec Kralove and Jicin.
Glazed frost has appeared in the section near Vestary. In the morning, one lane was blocked by a lorry there.
At 5:00 CET, a passenger train derailed on the railway between Ostromer and Lazne Belohrad in the Jicin area due to a fallen tree.
The traffic on the railway section was stopped, but the Czech Railways could not use buses because the roads were not passable.
“Road workers have been maintaining the roads since Tuesday evening without any interruption, but unfortunately the climatic conditions are unfavourable and there is too much snow,” Martin Cervicek, the first deputy regional governor in charge of transport, told journalists.
“Wherever possible, we are trying to double the work of snow removal vehicles,” Cervicek said.
The Giant Mountains ridges were covered by roughly 55 centimetres of snow in the past 48 hours.
This morning, the mountain rescue service declared the third degree of avalanche danger there. Previously, there was the first, lowest degree of avalanche risk on the five-point scale.
The Czech Hydrometeorological Institute has warned that the snow fall will continue until Thursday.
pv,kva/dr/ms
