MOSCOW, September 6 (Itar-Tass) —— The Caucasus route, where a major accident happened on Tuesday, will be reconstructed soon, Chechen head Ramzan Kadyrov said.
“We have plans to reconstruct this route, but we must be quick: otherwise the death rate will grow day after day,” he said.
Kadyrov described federal route M-29 as “a theater of military operations” because of the high number of road accidents. “Forty-one people died in accidents on this road since the year beginning, and another 80 people were injured seriously. Fifty years have passed since the construction of this road, and it has never been modernized. The road has only two narrow lanes, meanwhile, the traffic has grown hundreds of times,” Kadyrov said.
The main cause of frequent accidents is the busy traffic, he said. “There is an endless line of cars coming to Dagestan and Azerbaijan across Chechnya and back,” he said.
The Tuesday accident happened near Dzhalka, between Argun and Gudermes. A Gazelle mini-bus coming from Urus-Martan to Khasavyurt collided with a KamAZ truck. The traffic was paralyzed for nearly two hours. Seven people onboard the Gazelle died. Four were taken to the Gudermes hospital.