France, Jan. 6 -- Three people died in two separate accidents caused by black ice in southwestern France, while a rideshare driver died after falling into the Marne River near Paris.

The two tragedies come after the deaths on Monday of a van driver in a collision with a truck, also in the Paris region and a motorcyclist in the western region of Brittany.

Snow caused over 1,000 km of traffic jams in the Île-de-France region on Monday evening, a record level,according to the traffic information website Sytadin.

French Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot said that the scale of the weather event was "somewhat underestimated" by the national weather bureau Meteo-France, particularly around the French capital, adding that "the response ...