Live ticker on snow and freezing rain: situation on motorways remains tense | FAZ

On the Highway 3 in the north Rhineland-Palatinate is the Position on Thursday morning still tense. The Koblenz police appealed to people, to postpone avoidable trips if possible. “The road and highway maintenance departments as well as emergency services from the blue light family are still on duty,” said the police.

Snow and slippery conditions led to kilometer-long traffic jams and standstills on the A3 on Thursday night. Traffic came to a standstill in both directions, particularly between the Bad Honnef/Linz and Neustadt/Wied junctions, as the police said. The technical operations management of the Neuwied district said that several trucks had broken down due to the weather. “Some of the trucks slipped, so that the entire motorway was blocked and traffic in the direction of Cologne came to a standstill.” According to an initial estimate around 2000 people in a traffic jam been issued.

In total, more than 250 people were deployed in the district's fire and disaster protection. The technical relief agency towed trucks free and the fire department looked after the people in the vehicles. The fire department provided them with hot drinks. “There were people there who were just happy that they got a warm coffee because they had already been stuck in a traffic jam for four hours,” said Tim Wessel, press spokesman for the fire departments of the Asbach municipality.