Ice cripples Muscovites

The sharp warming that arrived in Moscow the day before increased the number of injuries among city residents. Since Monday evening, 75 people have been hospitalized in city hospitals with various fractures and bruises, writesVzglyad . Despite the crushed stone and reagents that utility workers use to treat the streets that have turned into a skating rink, the number of ambulance calls is increasing. Traffic police officers ask drivers to exercise extreme caution: Moscow will also be warm and slippery on Tuesday.
Since Monday evening, city emergency rooms have been working in increased mode: the number of ambulance calls related to injuries due to ice on Moscow streets has almost tripled.

Temperature jumps are also hard for weather-sensitive people, as well as Muscovites suffering from vascular diseases. A difficult situation is also developing on the capital’s roads. The Moscow State Traffic Safety Inspectorate urges drivers to be especially vigilant and attentive.

- Road conditions in the city have worsened. According to statistics, in icy conditions the number of accidents more than doubles, and the number of collisions with pedestrians increases due to the increased braking distance of the car,” stated the press service of the traffic police.
Traffic police officers ask you to be extremely careful when crossing intersections, as well as at pedestrian crossings, near schools and kindergartens.

On Tuesday, weather forecasters promise that weather conditions will again contribute to the formation of ice and ice in Moscow.

“There will still be thaws,” said the country’s chief meteorologist Roman Vilfand. – It could be 1-2 degrees colder in the coming days, with night temperatures at -2-7 degrees and daytime temperatures at -1-3 degrees. This regime will last until approximately the 16th.

- Of course, the situation in the city is very difficult. Icy conditions remain. Precipitation in the form of rain is possible, while the surface temperature of the earth is –2–3 degrees,” Marina Orlova, head of the press service of the housing and communal services complex, told the VZGLYAD newspaper.

On Monday, the central headquarters of the department gave instructions to all city services to sprinkle gravel and small crushed stone in courtyard areas, pedestrian areas, sidewalks, public transport stops and approaches to metro stations.

- Over 5 thousand units of cleaning equipment, more than a thousand integrated teams (numbering over 5 thousand people) were deployed to combat the ice. In addition, more than 50 thousand street cleaners took to the streets in all Moscow administrative districts,” Orlova noted.

However, the streets are still very slippery.

- Now specialists from the OATI (Association of Administrative and Technical Inspections) have begun work, checking how the headquarters’ instructions have been implemented. If something was not done on time, violators will be punished with fines,” emphasized the head of the press service of the housing and communal services complex.