The traffic jam, on the Kanetsu Expressway connecting Tokyo and Niigata prefectures, began on Thursday morning after a car got stuck in deep snow in the middle of the highway, bringing traffic to a halt, according to the Nippon Expressway Company (NEXCO). highway operator.
Heavy snowfall hit the central and northern regions of the country that morning, disrupting transit and losing power to some communities.
Traffic on the highway stalled for the rest of the day. At its peak on Thursday night, the outage stretched to 15 kilometers (about 9.3 miles), NEXCO told CNN. The jam went on through Friday; the lanes coming from Tokyo were eventually cleared, but the lanes leading to the capital were still stopped. On Friday 12:00 noon there were still 1,000 cars stuck.
Pictures from the highway show the long lines of motionless cars, many with piles of snow on and around their vehicles, stranded amid snow-covered fields.
Earlier on Thursday, some limited relief came as aid workers shared rice balls, bread, crackers, sweet snacks and 600 bottles of water, as well as thousands of gallons of gasoline and diesel oil.
But it wasn’t enough, with drivers trapped in the cold for many more hours.
A woman in their 30s and a man in their 60s were taken from jams to hospital on Thursday for respiratory problems and nausea, according to Niigata’s crisis management officer Tsuyoshi Watanabe. No fatal or serious incidents have been reported so far.
Watanabe added that the prefecture has asked to send Japanese self-defense forces to provide water, food, gasoline and portable toilets for those still detained on Friday, and to help clear the snow.
NEXCO is also warning drivers, via social media and over the radio, to be cautious about the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning while waiting in their car for hours on end.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has met with ministers to discuss the heavy snowfall and called on local officials to work together to restore services and help those affected, NHK reported.