Turkey's busiest highway TEM reopens after closure due to multiple-vehicle collisions

Istanbul has been hit by heavy snowfall since Tuesday, resulting in more than 800 traffic accidents across the city. The TEM Motorway (Trans-European Motorway), one of the two highways connecting the European and Asian sides, got its share of trouble from the life-strangling weather, even forcing some Istanbulites to walk to their homes on Tuesday night.

With the ferry services cancelled, people flocked to the TEM or D-100 highways, but with the two bridges unable to handle the city's massive population of more than 14 million, life on the roads stopped.

The TEM motorway saw at least two multiple-vehicle collisions on Tuesday, involving almost 40 vehicles. Later in the night, both lanes of the motorway were shut down for hours. The lane that moves in the direction of Ankara resumed its course on Wednesday morning, while the other lane in the direction of the city of Edirne has resumed its course later on in the day.

Video of the aftermath of a chain accident that occurred on the TEM highway can be found below: