Snow fall in May; photo PAP/Grzegorz Hawałe

Freezing weather and snow added to the hazards facing drivers returning from the May break yesterday, with 41 losing their lives and 547 injured in around 400 accidents since the long weekend began last Friday evening.

Wintry weather returned to south west Poland with driving snow leaving 100,000 homes without electricity in Lower Silesia and Opole regions with traffic grinding to a halt on many roads. Temperatures plummeted to zero degrees Celsius in some areas.

By evening, sleet and rain had fallen on central Poland. Temperatures of minus 3 hit northern Poland Sunday night, Monday morning, with frost in many places.

“We appeal as usual for caution and prudence - the situation on the roads is very difficult,” said spokeswoman at Police HQ in Warsaw, Grazyna Puchalska.

Slippery roads have been made even worse as many vehicles have already crossed over the summer tyres and are completely inappropriate for the return of winter, she said.

Power lines were down in Walbrzych, Jelenia Góra and the Wroclaw area after trees heavy with snow toppled over and cut electricity cables.

Arthur Rudkowski from the Opole emergency services said that they were working as hard as they could to restore power but bad road conditions are slowing down operations.

Police also say they arrested 2268 people for driving under the influence of alcohol over the May weekend break. (pg)

Source: PAP/TVP

Updated at 08.13