Traffic volume on the nation’s freeways reached a new high yesterday — the second day of the Lunar New Year holiday, when married women traditionally visit their parents with their spouses — with a number of car accidents reported.
Congestion was reported on many sections of the highways heading in both directions, with National Freeway Bureau statistics showing that more than 1 million vehicles had hit the road as of 11am.
Drivers traveling through sections of the southbound lanes of the National Sun Yat-sen Freeway (Freeway No. 1) between Yangmei (楊梅) and Hsinchu, the Formosa Freeway’s (Freeway No. 3) southbound lanes between Hemei (和美) and Mingjian (名間), and Freeway No. 10’s Zuoying (左營) and Yanchao (燕巢) interchange system had to reduce their speed to below 40kph.
Photo: Yen Hung-chun, Taipei Times
The bureau said traffic volume was expected to reach 3.2 million cars yesterday, up from 2.15 million on Wednesday and 2.77 million on Thursday.
The National Highway Police Bureau’s Fifth Division said that traffic had been heavy since 8am, with some sections of the northbound lanes being so jammed that they were “like parking lots.”
Traffic near popular attractions, such as Kaohsiung’s Chengcing Lake (澄清湖) and the Gushan Ferry Station (鼓山輪渡站), was also slow-moving. People waiting to board ferries to Cijin District (旗津) had to wait in line for nearly an hour.
Photo: Wang Yang-yu, Taipei Times
Road accidents contributed to the congestion, the National Freeway Bureau said.
At about 11am, black smoke was seen coming out of the hood of an automobile traveling near the 41km marker of the Sun Yat-sen Freeway’s southbound lane.
The vehicle burst into flames shortly after the driver pulled over to the roadside. No injuries were reported, as the driver and two passengers had stepped out of the car to check the engine before the vehicle turned into a fireball.
Another family was less fortunate. A taxi carrying two passengers — a mother and her daughter — crashed into a traffic signal while traveling on the Wanruei Expressway.
Rescuers had to remove one of the car doors to reach the trapped passengers, before rushing them to a hospital. The cause of the accident has not been determined.
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