Heavy overnight snowfall paralyzed several major highways in southern Sweden on Wednesday, with motorists and truck drivers left stranded for more than 10 hours. After a spring-like weekend, Sweden experienced a marked cooling and heavy snowfall across most of the south of the country between Tuesday and Wednesday, surprising many drivers.
“The acute phase of the crisis” has passed
Hundreds of them were blocked for hours on several roads, forcing Infrastructure Minister Andreas Carlson to leave a meeting with his counterparts in Brussels to manage the crisis.
“The acute phase of the crisis”
has passed, and traffic has resumed on most roads, Carlson said at a press conference Wednesday evening. He also called on motorists who had replaced summer tires not to travel on snow-covered roads
“under any circumstances”
.
The minister made a similar appeal
“to truck drivers who do not have adequate tires for winter conditions”
.
“A lot of the road closures over the last 24 hours were caused by heavy vehicles getting stuck
,” Carlson told reporters. It is too early to say what went wrong but it is
“obvious”
that road maintenance can be improved, he added.
Truck drivers criticized the government for blaming them for the blockages, and opposition representatives accused the government of inaction. The government was
“as invisible”
as it had been during a similar episode in early January, Lena Hallengren, head of the Social Democrats in Parliament, said on X.
“Is the government still on Easter break?”
, she added.