Tuesday, December 23, 2008 Toppled truck snarls traffic
TRAFFIC, already snarled because of the holiday rush, came to a halt Monday morning as a softdrink delivery truck fell on its side on the northbound lane of MacArthur Highway, just off Matina Crossing in Davao City.
The incident, which occurred around 7:30 in the morning, blocked the northbound lane, and caused a gridlock at Matina Crossing.
The southbound lane soon filled up as motorists tried to find a way out of the jam. The long traffic queue reached as far as Bangkal.
Traffic enforcers from the Traffic Management Command (TMC) arrived at the scene 15 minutes later and redirected the traffic to alternate routes, such as Matina Pangi and the inner streets of Matina but not after fraying the tempers of hundreds of motorists.
Relatively heavy traffic was also observed throughout the city, especially in streets en route to shopping centers and malls.
The TMC expects another increase in traffic volume in the city with Christmas Day just a few days away.
"We expect it to increase further by five percent this week," Celso Gempesaw, TMC chief, told Sun.Star Davao in an interview.
The traffic volume in the city has already increased by as much as 35 percent since November this year as monitored by the TMC.
