Kurzeme roads prove once again: they're more dangerous than Liepāja's icy beach winds

While Liepāja residents complain that our beach is windy and cold even in summer, inland Kurzeme inhabitants are discovering they have much bigger problems than just freezing by the sea. The Ventspils–Kuldīga–Saldus highway has once again become a place where life decisions are made faster than Liepāja wind blows sand in your face.

In the courtroom sits a young Lithuanian woman with an interpreter translating tragedy from Latvian. The situation is so quintessentially Kurzeme that even the interpreter needs an interpreter to understand how so many accidents can happen on one stretch of road. Joana is crying, but not because it's as cold as Liepāja in October, but because she realizes – Kurzeme roads don't forgive mistakes.

"We live here thinking the main thing is to survive winter," says local resident Jānis. "But it turns out autumn is no joke either. It would be better to stay in Liepāja and complain about the cold wind."

Now the court will determine whether this is yet another proof that Kurzeme roads are more dangerous than anything else, or just bad coincidence. But one thing is clear – while we in Liepāja fear the cold Baltic Sea wind, in other parts of Kurzeme they fear something much more serious.