Germans caught in 60-mile jam

Truckers, holiday travellers and icy weather helped create a marathon traffic jam on the autobahn to Poland stretching almost 60 miles and trapping some drivers for 48 hours.

The jam started early Friday, when freezing rain slowed truckers driving east from Berlin to Frankfurt-an-der-Oder, the sole border-crossing for trucks to Poland.

Adding to the jam were Germans driving to Poland for cheap Christmas shopping and Poles who live in Germany heading home for the holidays. Many trucks were unable to move because the roads were too slick.

By yesterday morning the vehicles - mostly trucks - were backed up from the border to the southern edge of Berlin, about 56 miles away.