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Friday, July 18, 2008

Lunchtime Quickie

posted by on July 18 at 12:01 PM

My eternal fascination with Russia continues with The Tunnel of Death, aka The Lefortovo Tunnel, and/or the Mad Max Expressway:

The 2.2 km (1.4 miles) long Lefortovo Tunnel in Russia is the fifth longest ‘in-city’ tunnel in all of Europe. There is a river running over it and water leaks at some points. When the temperature reaches minus 38 degrees, like it did last winter, the road freezes and the result is this video taken during a single day with the tunnel camera.

RSS icon Comments

1

At the 1-minute mark I see a single truck crash into a wall but two trucks get turned over. I really can't see where the second truck comes from. Odd.

Posted by JC | July 18, 2008 12:29 PM
2

I'm not sitting in the back of articulated buses anymore.

Posted by asteria | July 18, 2008 12:36 PM
3

Show this to "green" mayor Nickels the next time he suggests a tunnel for the waterfront.

Posted by Reverse Polarity | July 18, 2008 12:47 PM
4

Russia is fucked up.

Posted by used to blog | July 18, 2008 12:49 PM
5

I can't imagine this took place in a single day. Wouldn't they have to close the tunnel for at least a couple of hours for each accident?

Posted by prenks | July 18, 2008 12:55 PM
6

That truck hit the wall so hard, it morphed into two trucks. magic.

Posted by Gad | July 18, 2008 12:59 PM
7

#5 - it is mysterious - I only quoted what I found on the descriptions from the YouTube page, and Wikipedia. Haven't dug too much deeper

Posted by KELLY O | July 18, 2008 12:59 PM
8

That bus driver is the boss. Everybody else completely lost it and he just whacked the back end of the thing once and kept going.

Posted by The CHZA | July 18, 2008 1:19 PM
9

#1, I noticed the same thing and had to re-watched. The only thing I can think of is that the one truck was already hidden completely behind the other truck riding its ass when they came into the shot.

The best part of that segment, though, is the car driver that immediately puts on his blinker to try to change lanes and get around the crash.

Posted by w7ngman | July 18, 2008 1:28 PM
10

i imagine that in russia closing a tunnel for something as trivial as a car accident or an out of control bus would be unthinkable.

Posted by douglas | July 18, 2008 1:46 PM
11

I like when the Volvo flips and finally comes to rest right side up and THEN the gas cap blows.

Posted by NaFun | July 18, 2008 1:47 PM
12

I'm thinking we've found our viaduct fix.

Posted by Ryan | July 18, 2008 2:14 PM
13

I used to travel to Russia for work and every time I got into a car I took a deep breath and thought, well, I've had a good life. The one time I went through that tunnel, our driver laughed and said, "we're probably going to die in the this tunnel, but here goes!"

Posted by rb | July 18, 2008 2:32 PM
14

I could've sworn that was the 358 bus the last time I rode it.

Posted by Sad Comment | July 18, 2008 2:36 PM
15

@1, 6, 9: It looks like the mysterious second truck comes directly out of the wall. Maybe from the tunnel going the other direction? Or from some access tunnel we can't see?

Posted by Sarah | July 18, 2008 3:14 PM
16

@1, 6 & 9:

From what I can tell, it appears the two trucks are in fact side-by-side as they come into frame; one perhaps was trying to pass on the left by either straddling the center and right lane, or, the other was trying to pass on the right by trying to force the inside truck out of the right-hald lane. Pretty fucked up either way.

In any case, I blame all of this carnage on teh vodka.

Posted by COMTE | July 18, 2008 3:15 PM
17

@16-I dunno, it looks like it's coming straight out of the wall to me...

Posted by schnoodle | July 18, 2008 3:54 PM
18

I would love a tunnel like that. I would make going to work not boring anymore. At least it wouldn't hinder anyone's view.

Posted by Shawn | July 18, 2008 4:20 PM
19

Oh man, the video is down! I want to watch it to... T_T

Posted by >_< | July 18, 2008 5:39 PM
20

Oh man, I hate making grammatical errors too! T_T

Posted by >_< | July 18, 2008 5:43 PM
21

Hey Kelly,

I'm in Istanbul and the videos don't display in slog, your posts always make me laugh, is there any way you could post a link as well? Youtube is banned here so its pointless for youtube video but anyway... Yea, that would be rad.

Posted by Morgan | July 19, 2008 3:24 AM
22
Posted by KELLY O | July 19, 2008 7:46 PM
23

also #21 - thank you! and Istanbul? you're reading SLOG in Istanbul?!

Posted by KELLY O | July 19, 2008 7:48 PM

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