Heavy snowfall has wreaked havoc on two highways outside Moscow, with a series of accidents involving multiple vehicles along a 30 km stretch of the Simferopol Highway, southwest of the city, bringing traffic to a complete standstill.
"According to preliminary information, about 50 cars collided between the 24th and 58th kilometre marks of the Simferopol highway," a police spokesperson told Sputnik.
Earlier, local media reported that traffic on the highway was brought to a standstill, with several separate accidents reported across multiple stretches. As of 4 pm Moscow time, traffic was said to be moving again, albeit slowly.
Videos from the scenes of the accidents showed the extent of the damage. Two injuries were reported in one of the accidents, which happened outside the city of Chekhov, and saw the collision of 16 vehicles at once. Two other large accidents were reported on the 58th and 26th kilometers. In total, police said that over a dozen accidents took place on the road, with heavy snowfall and icy roads blamed.
In a separate accident, 15 cars were reported to have collided on the Novorizhskoe Highway northwest of Moscow, with one injury reported. The cause of the accident is still being investigated.
Новые кадры с места ДТП на Симферопольском шоссе. pic.twitter.com/sVj12H8Pku
— Москва 24 (@infomoscow24) 26 января 2019 г.
In the capital itself, fewer than 10 small fender benders were reported as of noon on Saturday.
Some 9,000 pieces of snow clearing equipment have been deployed to help dig Moscow out of the storm, one of the heaviest in decades.
