Hundreds of vehicles and commuters were held up for hours yesterday afternoon in a massive traffic jam on the East Bank Demerara public road after a piece of equipment destined for oil and gas operations fell off a container truck at McDoom.
Stabroek News understands that the equipment is part of a mud pump used in oil and gas operations. The equipment, which was registered to Schlumberger, the largest oil services provider in the world, was not properly secured on the truck. The incident occurred sometime after 4:30 pm yesterday as the truck was navigating a turn.
Stabroek News last night reached out to Schlumberger’s spokeswoman Susan Ganz via email for a comment on the accident but up to press time, there was no response.
The accident resulted in severe traffic congestion on both sides of the four-lane highway. Traffic halted for approximately two and a half hours before it started to move. Even then, the traffic moved at a snail’s pace.
Hundreds of commuters who were heading into the city, walked from where they were stuck in traffic up to Mandela Avenue where they sought other means to reach their various destinations.
One woman told Stabroek News that she had to exit the car she was in due to the traffic being stalled.
Saved as forklifts in picture
“I had to walk from McDoom to Mandela Avenue before I could have gotten a taxi to get to work,” she said, explaining that other commuters “jumped out of the minibuses and walked some distance before taking a short drop car into the city.”
Many taxi drivers operating from Mandela Avenue further into Georgetown doubled their fare due to the high demand.
“I was lucky to get a car by DSL supermarket but the driver charged $1000 and (I) was rushing to get back to work,” the woman recalled. She said that just after the mishap, traffic on the western lane was moving slowly but stopped after some time.
On the scene, two forklifts were utilised to lift the piece of equipment back on the
trailer. After much maneuvering, this was accomplished.
Stabroek News was told that because of the position in which the equipment fell, the workers were challenged to reload it on the truck.
“The way in which the piece of machine fell, they could not have done much to reload it quickly and that caused the traffic build up,” the woman said.
At around 8:30 pm, persons reported that the piece of equipment was removed from the road and traffic flowed as normal.
Police were also on the scene assisting with traffic control but that did not prevent the massive buildup of vehicles.
