Jetta hits Golf, 5 die

PMR: Authorities urge drivers to be careful, as snow and ice on local roads are causing an increase in traffic accidents

TIRASPOL (Tiraspol Times) - On the main Dubossary-Tiraspol highway, just north of Tiraspol, five people died and two were hospitalized after what local authorities describe as the worst traffic accident of the year.

In a head on collission between a Volkswagen Jetta and a Volkswagen Golf, both cars crashed and caught fire. Only two of the seven passengers survived their burns. The accident took place at night. Traffic police reports that it was most likely caused by a combination of high speeds on icy roads with sleet and limited visibility due to snow and the time of night. There are no indications that alcohol was involved, reported PMR Interior Ministry spokesman Aleksandr Moiseyev to the Tiraspol office of news agency New Region.

Emergency crews arrived at the scene of the accident, just north of Tiraspol at the 9 kilometer (5.6 mile) mark between Dubossary and Tiraspol, Pridnestrovie's capital and home to over a fifth of the unrecognized country's population of 555,000 people.

Pridnestrovie, also known alternately as Transnistria or Transdniestria, has been in charge of its own road maintenance and emergency services after it declared independence from the Moldavian SSR in 1990 as part of the breakup of the Soviet Union.

One passenger from each vehicle survived, an eleven year old boy and a man of twenty. They are currently being treated at Tiraspol's main hospital for first and second degree burns, with doctors calling their condition critical.

In Pridnestrovie, authorities now urge drivers to be extra careful, as snow and ice on local roads are causing an increase in traffic accidents.

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