Snow and bad driving conditions in Eastern Norway

snow and slippery roadsSnow and slippery roads.Photo: Terje Pedersen / NTB scanpix

Snow and bad driving conditions in Eastern Norway

In Hedmark and Oppland, several cars had to be saved after driving off the road due to a lot of snow night before Wednesday. The police implore people to drive carefully.

 

The Norwegian Public Roads Administration reports about snow and bad driving conditions in several parts of the country, and ask people to use winter tires and drive carefully.

On Wednesday, driving conditions in Hedmark and Oppland will improve.

– Mostly dry or wet on the main roads. Still some snowfall. Plowing and salting are ongoing. Drive carefully, Road Traffic Center tweets at 6.15 am on Wednesday morning.

According to NRK, more than 6,500 are without power in Hedmark and Oppland after a lot of snowfall in a short period of time. Especially the west side of Mjøsa from Gjøvik and north is affected, in addition to the Ringsaker and Rena area.

Traffic Accidents

Operations Manager Tor Eirik Midthaug told NTB at 3 am on Wednesday that they had to salvage several cars that had driven off the road.

– There have been a lot of traffic accidents. Fortunately, it’s so far only about material damage and no injuries. It’s because of a lot of snowfall and that some still are unfortunately using summer tires.

Midthaug points out that there had been so much snowfall in recent hours that even those with winter tires had problems.

– It seems to stop snowing, dry up a little and conditions are getting better. Eventually, one also gets to clear and salt the roads, leading to conditions to improve, he continues.

Be smart

He says it seems that Hedmark got even more snow than Oppland. Additionally, several trees have fallen over due to heavy snowfall in a short period of time. He asks people to be sensible when they leave for work on Wednesday morning.

– We hope people are sensible and leave the car behind if they have not yet changed to winter tires. We hope that it will be properly plowed so that people get on their way.

The police on Romerike tweeted about “soapy” roads, cars that slide sideways, and several who have driven off the road.

– It’s two inches of slush on the roads, leading to cars sliding sideways. We have a patrol on the spot to get an overview, says the operation leader in the Eastern Police District to VG on Tuesday evening.

Lots of snow

Yr reports that from Tuesday and Wednesday morning, it will possibly reach 30 centimeters of snow in some areas.

County road 55 over Sognefjellet is closed. On the Hemsedalsfjellet, there are two to three kilometers of queues due to snowy and slippery roads, Bergen Road Traffic Center announced night before Wednesday.

According to NRK, there were snowy conditions and strong winds both on highway 7 over Hardangervidda and county road 50 Aurland-Hol. The same was true for E134 Haukelifjell, E16 Filefjell and county road 53 Tyin-Årdal.

Mountain passes

– There are bad weather on the mountain passes. Visibility is reduced, a lot of wind and temperatures around zero degrees centigrade. That combination is nasty and uncomfortable for the motorists going over the mountain, says Kjetil Molvær, traffic operator at the Road Traffic Center in Lærdal, to NRK.

He encourages people that drive over the mountains to fill up the tank, have good windshield wipers, good tires – and to slow down when the wind comes in gusts.

 

©  NTB Scanpix / Norway Today