According to Vísir.is, five people were rushed to hospital after the five car pile-up at around 18.00 on Boxing Day evening. Meanwhile RÚV reported that it was in fact a six car pile-up and that two people were taken to hospital.

Fire fighters had to use cutting equipment to free some of the trapped travellers and the main road in western Iceland was closed in both directions near to Álfsnes. There is no alternative route in the area and many cars were therefore delayed by the accident for over two hours.

RÚV reports that at first two cars crashed together in the slippery conditions and then the other three or four were unable to stop in time. All of the vehicles are seriously damaged; some of them irreparably. Four ambulances and a fire brigade technical vehicle were sent to the scene.

Nobody died in the accident and traffic was allowed to pass the scene again at around 20.00.

“The methanol here is made by taking carbon dioxide from the waste geothermal steam from the nearby HS Orka power station and then electricity from which we make hydrogen and these two are mixed together to create methanol,” says plant chief Benedikt Stefansson.

The methanol is to be mixed in to normal petrol to make a fuel suitable for existing petrol-driven cars.

“This is really the first time when we have mixed environmentally friendly Icelandic fuel into petrol so that we now have Icelandic fuel in petrol cars which is made from Icelandic energy. We hope that as time goes by people will be able to use this alone to reduce the amount of petrol being imported. But to start with we are making a low-level mixture which suits all petrol cars so that everybody can use this sort of mixed fuel in their cars,” Stefansson explained to Visir.is.

To begin with the new fuel is only available at the N1 station on Kringlumyrarbraut in Reykjavik. It is two kronur per litre cheaper than normal petrol. Stefansson believes, however, that the fuel’s biggest benefit is in reducing pollution and making cars a little kinder to the environment.

He explains that usually there are two sets of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere: waste CO2 from the geothermal power station and waste CO2 from car exhausts. The new fuel means the CO2 will only come from cars and the fuel will have travelled less distance to reach the cars in the first place.

One of Reykjavik’s economising measures is to turn street lights on later and to burn the bulbs at a lower brightness than before.

Sigurdur Helgason, a Directorate of Traffic specialist told RUV that the changes could impact travel safety.

A driver who spoke to a RUV reporter at around 18.00 said he clearly noticed that the street lights had not been illuminated. At the time it was getting dark and heavy rain made driving challenging.

The street lights in the city were turned on at 18.30; which is within the city’s safety limits for how dark it can be before streets are lit up. Sigurdur Helgason said, however, that the Directorate of Traffic has sent its concerns to the city council and had done so before the change was made — the directorate’s recommendation was not followed, however.

The operation to remove the car from the sea happened at around 14.00 yesterday near the street of Hrannargata in Reykjanesbaer. The 4×4 vehicle was described as being in a bad way and many volunteer search & rescue workers attended the scene.

Members of the public were not allowed near the scene and police are not making public statements, as the case is under investigation, DV reports.

The Sudurnes police did, however, confirm that the body of a woman was found in the car, adding that the case has been passed on to detectives.

Eye witnesses said that the car was badly damaged, but media reports are unclear about how and when the car got into the sea. A simple road traffic accident would seem to be the most obvious explanation; but further information is not yet available.

The Neskaupstadur search and rescue team was called to Oddskardi at lunchtime yesterday in order to save around 5,000 litres of ice cream from a lorry which had rolled off the road. This is the second unusual food-related traffic accident in recent weeks.

The truck driver escaped unharmed, according to local police.

RUV reports that the ice cream was en route to shops in the east of the country and Neskaupstadur was the first stop. The lorry went off the road north of Oddskardi and ended up perched at an awkward angle.

According to the Emessis ice cream company, although rescuers were able to move all 5,000 litres-worth of ice cream over to another vehicle; it will probably need to be declared unfit for sale.

The East Fjords will not suffer this holiday weekend, however; as another truck full of sweet frozen goods will leave Akureyri today.

DV reports that two people are in a very serious condition at Reykjavik’s Landspitali hospital following yesterday’s accident at Vididalur. According to hospital sources, one man received emergency surgery due to head injuries incurred in the accident and another is in intensive care. One other person is in a general ward.

A total of 11 people were taken to hospital after the crash; nine by helicopter and two by ambulance. However, the majority of the patients were allowed to leave hospital yesterday evening.

Two of the three cars contained foreign tourists and Icelanders were in the third car. Nothing more is yet known about what caused the accident on Route 1 near Grof. The road was closed for much of yesterday because the accident debris took up both lanes. It was soon re-opened, however.

Luckily nobody died in yesterday’s crash. Six people have died on Iceland’s roads so far this year. 31 people died in 2006; but that figure has been significantly lower each year since. Just eight people died in traffic accidents in 2010.

The Icelandic Traffic Administration reports, on the other hand, that the number of serious injuries from road accidents has increased from 130 last year to 156 this year.

If there is little or no change in the number of deaths before the 31st December, Iceland will be among the countries with the fewest road deaths per 1,000 inhabitants.

Some point to the redoubled effort on the part of the police to stop speeding drivers and issue extremely high fines as an explanation for the number of deaths falling while the rate of accidents remains roughly unchanged. Iceland has one of the lowest speed limits in the Western world: never above 90 km/h. Others point to the ever-improving safety of the road network, with more tunnels, paved road surfaces and safety barriers than ever before.

Hedinsfjardargong is, in fact, two tunnels: a 7 km tunnel between Olafsfjordur and Hedinsfjordur and a 4 km stretch between Hedinsfjordur and Siglufjordur. The car journey between the towns of Olafsfjordur and Siglufjordur (both in the Fjallabyggd municipality) is now 47 kilometres shorter than it was on Friday.

Hedinsfjardargong was first discussed in the Althingi national parliament in 1990 – but construction did not begin until four years ago. The tunnel will be a major boost to the small community of Fjallabyggd — especially during wintertime when the old roads can be very treacherous. To celebrate the day, the two towns were linked together with a 17 kilometre-long scarf which people from the local area and around the world have been making for several months.

Hedinsfjardargong cost ISK 12 billion (USD 106.7 million) to complete, which is a billion over-budget due to the large amount of water seeping into the tunnel during construction.

A week ago yesterday, the Westfjords region was also celebrating the opening of a new tunnel. The new Oshlidargong between Isafjordur (Hnifsdalur) and Bolungarvik was constructed for safety reasons. The old coastal road along Oshlid is extremely prone to rock slides, avalanches and icing in winter. Keeping the road open was a constant and expensive struggle and a real danger to the travelling public.

The crash happened on Biskupstungnabraut between Minni Borg and Laugarvatnsafleggjari just before 10.30 this morning.

A coastguard helicopter was called to the scene to attend to the two most seriously injured passengers. They were on-board the helicopter by 11.30 and flown to Landspitali hospital in Reykjavik. Another injured passenger was taken to Reykjavik in an ambulance and two more were taken by ambulance to the small hospital in Selfoss – neither of whom were seriousuly injured. One person escaped the crash unharmed.

Little is known of the circumstances surrounding the crash yet – but the weather was dry and bright and driving conditions were very good at the time. Visir.is sources report that at least some of the injured parties are Chinese nationals.

The road is closed due to the accident and traffic is being directed over the mountain road, Solheimavegur.

PHOTO: Visir.is / Einar

The car dealer Brimborg has compiled new figures showing that 2,500 new cars were sold between January and June 2010 compared to 1,900 in the first half of 2009.

The increase has largely been attributed to the rental car industry, RUV reports.

Rental car companies in Iceland are renewing their fleets much more this year, buying 1,700 new cars in the first six months of the year compared to just 500 in the same period last year.