Commuter fury at 6-hour operation to move truck

COMMUTERS reacted angrily yesterday after authorities took six hours to sort out traffic problems caused by an overturned truck in Dublin city centre.

Tens of thousands of commuters were stuck in traffic jams stretching for more than 11km from the city centre to past the airport.

The truck and trailer overturned near the Point Depot and Dublin Port at 6am.

Initial attempts to remove it failed and a crane had to be called in. By 8.30am, when most commuters were travelling to work, traffic was at a standstill in the city centre.

By midday, when the truck was removed, there was gridlock out as far as Dublin Airport.

One commuter said it took almost four hours to get to work. “It was like a car park north of the airport.”

Another said: “It was absolutely appalling. There was no communication at all, it’s just typical.”

Another said: “It was absolutely horrendous, I don’t know why it takes five or six hours to remove a truck.”

Conor Faughnan from AA Roadwatch said: “We’ve been getting loads of calls from motorists asking how come we couldn’t react to it faster, how come we couldn’t get the obstacle out of there. I think there will be a fair amount of fallout from this one and I think there should be. A lot of people are very concerned about how we fell down so badly on what was a relatively simple incident.”

Labour Party transport spokesman Tommy Broughan, whose constituents were affected by the chaos, said commuters are owed a full explanation.

“It is beyond belief that a single-vehicle accident occurring so early in the morning could give rise to scenes of such mayhem, for such a prolonged period and over such a widespread area,” he said.

“The inconvenience caused to tens of thousands of people as a result of this has been immense, as has the cost to shops, businesses and the economy as a whole. Dublin City Council and An Garda Siochána owe the public a full explanation as to how this happened.”

Mr Faughnan said the incident showed Dublin “remains acutely vulnerable”.

“The real problem with the city is that 70% of the people in it have to move around by private car in the absence of a tube system or a metro system.

“[Incidents like this are] going to happen on a more and more regular basis unless and until we make the investments in public transport,” he said.