Transporters’ protest delays fire intervention in southern Bucharest

A fire broke out in southern Bucharest on Monday morning, but a road transporters' protest delayed the firefighters from intervening. A machine for compacting waste caught fire in the courtyard of Remat Sud, a local company specialized in metal waste recycling. A local team of firefighters managed to intervene on site, but they also requested the help of other colleagues. However, the other intervention teams arrived late at the fire because a protest of the road transporters blocked the capital’s road ring, reports local Mediafax. Several hundred carriers protested on Monday morning against the high tariffs of the mandatory car insurance policies RCA, on Bucharest’s road ring. Not only the trucks participated in the protest, but also taxis and minibusses. At 11:00, the infotrafic informed that the traffic on the capital’s road ring was carried out in difficult conditions as “a group of vehicles was running at low speed.” The Romanian Federation of Transport Operators (FORT) announced on Monday morning that FORT members from across the country were taking part in this protest. The transporters ran at low speeds of some 10 km per hour on several road rings in Buzau, Arad, Timisoara, Oradea, Baia Mare, and Satu Mare. The National Union of Road Hauliers from Romania (UNTRR) announced in August that the road transporters in Romania would start protesting, as they were unhappy with the high tariffs of the mandatory car insurance policies RCA. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com (Photo source: Fort-Romania on Facebook)