As if to demonstrate administrative impotence to react to emergency situations, at the beginning of every year Mother Nature just throws the sky's doors open and there we have it: clean, beautiful, perfectly shaped snowflakes, peacefully falling on half-completed Bulgarian highways, patched secondary roads, long-forgotten third class strips, city streets, pavements...or just getting caught on the tongue of a happy youngster, sliding on a snow-covered park mound.

The first major snowfall of the season fell on the weekend of January 3 and 4, the last days of the long holiday break. True to form, it caused chaos everywhere. Exactly one year had passed since a major scandal erupted when, following packed snow and unclean roads, about 600 vehicles were trapped near Petoluchkata (a five-ray junction on the Sofia-Bourgas road) for nearly 24 hours. Passengers were left to deal with the situation on their own, with no water or food supplies provided by the authorities.

This year, despite advanced warnings from the Ministry of Emergency Situations about the upcoming snowfall, access to larger Bulgarian cities was hindered by traffic jams when snow began to amass.

Darik Radio quoted the National Road Infrastructure Agency's director, Doncho Atanasov, as saying that "roads were scraped to the bone" thanks to the intensive work of about 1300 (some reports said 1400) maintenance machines.

In reality, Bulgarian-language Dnevnik daily revealed that passengers contacted the newspaper to relate a very different picture - on the backdrop of continuous snowfalls, major roads were icy and not sanded. As a result, some heavy car accidents occurred, but no casualties were reported.

The Interior Ministry said on its website that for the 24-hour period on January 4, 10 road accidents were recorded throughout the country. A total of 16 people were injured only one of whom was in a life-threatening condition. In Sofia, 97 minor accidents were reported with no people injured or killed.

After the falls stopped, snow cover throughout the country varied from 10cm in Veliko Turnovo and Kurdjali, to 24cm in Sofia and 38cm in Kyustendil. The same discrepancy occurred with temperatures: one degree Celsius in the Black Sea town of Ahotopol but a truly Arctic minus 22 in Knezha, south-west Bulgaria.

Some media analysis of the administration's handling of the snow noted that temporary banning the passage of lorries on Hemus highway accounted for the lack of road casualties that weekend. On January 4, a heavily loaded lorry turned over near Vakarel, a secondary road that flows into Sofia and blocked the traffic for several hours, Dnevnik daily reported.

Another major accident occurred on Trakiya highway when a bus travelling from Yambol to Sofia ran into the safety barrier, an incident that left seven people injured. Blame for the accident was attributed to tyre deficiencies  and a misjudged attempt by a car to overtake the bus.

On January 5, Dnevnik daily said that major roadways and intersections were being cleaned. Neighbourhood streets, on the other hand, remained slick with packed snow and ice. Reportedly, about 60 people were treated at the Pirogov emergency hospital in Sofia for broken limbs after falls.

Problems also affected people returning from Madrid and London with low-cost carrier easyJet. Passengers found themselves stranded in Thessaloniki and Bucharest, respectively. Sofia airport's CEO Plamen Stanchev wondered why the two pilots in question had refused to land when all runways had been maintained properly, Bulgarian media reported.

Passengers on the Madrid flight spent one night in a hotel in Thessaloniki, while 140 passengers travelling from London had to spend two nights in Bucharest until buses were sent to bring them home. Some travellers have filed a lawsuit against easyJet seeking compensation. Meanwhile, Focus news agency reported that the company issued a statement apologising for the inconvenience, saying that weather conditions were beyond its control and that easyJet had coped with the situation as well as it could. The carrier said that it had to re-direct flights on January 3 because Sofia airport was closed.

In addition, heavy snowfalls forced another six flights bound for Sofia to land in Varna or Bourgas, Dnevnik daily reported. On January 5, the airport returned to normal operation with no cancelled flights and minimal delays.

At the end of the snow saga, Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev sent out press releases to the media praising the management of NRIA and all firms for an uninterrupted 40 hours work dealing with the snow throughout the country. A Dnevnik editorial, published on January 5 - sarcastically - pondered these acts of "heroism" in peacetime. The editorial stated that the institutions concerned - and all contracted companies - are funded by taxpayers' money to do exactly that:  secure the safety of national roads and urban infrastructure when required. So, following this example, why does Stanishev not extend high praise to all medics working in emergency rooms and saving lives every day?

"Let's not comment on the state of the so-called republican road system, which, even without snowfalls and floods, stands vividly as testimony to the work of the past two cabinets," the newspaper commented.