Probe launched into holiday traffic jam on national highway

A prosecutor in the central Greek town of Lamia has launched an investigation into the reasons behind the huge bottlenecks and traffic jams that stretched for 15 kilometers, trapping hundreds of motorists and their families in the snow on the national highway on Friday afternoon.

Senior executives of the company in charge of managing the road, Nea Odos, are being asked why traffic was so seriously disrupted by no more than 5 centimeters of snow.

The company has already issued a statement apologizing to drivers for the inconvenience, but insisted that it had issued a warning on its website about the deteriorating weather conditions. It said that the disruption was caused by the higher volume of traffic due to the holiday season, coupled with the snowfall.

The man responsible for the operation of snow-clearing vehicles is also being questioned.