Manama: A Kuwaiti official has denied reports that a baby boy died after his family was stuck in heavy traffic and was unable to reach the hospital in time to treat him.
“The allegations about a baby’s death because of heavy traffic are just rumours circulated in social media and blogs,” Abdul Fattah Al Ali, the assistant undersecretary for traffic, said. “The operations room at the interior ministry did not receive any call over this case. It is just a rumour,” he said, quoted by local Arabic daily Al Rai on Monday.
Bloggers and social media users used the allegations to lash out at the ministry and accuse it of not being able to address the traffic congestion in cities, mainly in the capital, Kuwait City.
The reopening of schools has compounded a challenging traffic situation in the country despite the clean-up campaign launched by l Ali that greatly reduced the number of vehicles on the roads.
“There are points of congestion in spite of the gigantic efforts exerted by the traffic sector to ease the flow of vehicles,” he said. “We have identified the locations, and we have been able to control the movement of the vehicles there to reduce congestion.”
Efforts were stepped up this year to restore a positive driving culture in Kuwait where the number of new drivers among citizensand the expatriate communities is steadily increasing, forcing Kuwait City and other urban centres to face a daily endless stream of vehicles.
Officials this month said that they discovered thousands of forged driving licences and launched a campaign to cancel them.
