Traffic chaos in Abu Dhabi city

Abu Dhabi: Around five-hour-long traffic chaos witnessed in Abu Dhabi city on Tuesday evening was caused by the engine failure of a truck that blocked a road inside the city, according to Abu Dhabi Municipality.

It was not clear whether delay in removing the 'failed truck' caused the chaos as the municipality did not explain it and senior Traffic Police Officials were not available for comments. However, an Abu Dhabi Police offcial confirmed that no road accdidents caused the bottleneck.

The problems began around 5 pm and continued till 10 pm and many motorists were stuck on the roads for several hours, according to the residents.

The major roads inside the city-Muroor Road, Najdah Street, Hamdan Street, Airport Road, Passport Road, Khalifa Street and Corniche Road witnessed the bottleneck and the police men took over the control of vehcular movement at all the intersections on those roads, motorists said.

A statement issued by Abu Dhabi Munciplality said neither the failure of traffic signals nor any unannounced detours caused the problem. "Traffic signals have been working perfectly and the municipality never make any detours without informing the public in advance", the statement said.Engine failure of a truck on the road C 11 near Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank [inside the city , near Najdah street] was the root cause of the problems. The truck blocked the traffic on that road which caused the bottlenecks on nearby roads inside the city, the statement said.

"We are deeply concerned about the traffic congestion which caused inconvenience to the public. The municipality took immediate action as soon the problem was notified", the statement said.

Traffic Control Centre of the municipality adjusted the green signal to allow the flow of maximum number of vehicles. "We have been coordinating with the Abu Dhabi Police to control the situation". The Municipality blamed the misbehavior of some motorists for escalating the chaos.

Lieutenant Colonel Mohammad Al Nuaimi , the head of Quick Intervention Unit (QIU) of Abu Dhabi Police which is repsonsible for emergency response alone told Gulf News that road accidemts were not the cause of the congestion. The QIU could not explain the cause of the congestion as it falls under the responisbility of Traffic Control Authorities of Abu Dhabi Police.

Gulf News