News
Traffic jams up to three kilometres long at the entrance to Madrid this Sunday
Returning to Madrid became complicated on the afternoon of Sunday 23 August on two of the main roads into the capital. Separate accidents on the A-4, near Aranjuez, and on the A-1, close to Sieteiglesias, caused traffic jams during the usual weekend return hours.
The most significant incident occurred on the A-4, around kilometre 51. The accident forced the temporary closure of the left lane heading towards Madrid and led to traffic jams stretching for about three kilometres.
The second issue was on the A-1, at kilometre 73, near Sieteiglesias. There, another accident caused around two kilometres of slow-moving traffic for drivers heading to the capital from the north of the region.
The Dirección General de Tráfico reported that both incidents were still active at around 16:45. For those returning from Aranjuez, the Sierra Norte, or a weekend trip outside Madrid, the accidents added extra time to a Sunday when much of the road traffic is concentrated on routes into the city.
However, the situation improved quickly. Before six in the evening, traffic had returned to normal at both locations and the jams caused directly by these two accidents had cleared.
The A-4 is one of the main routes used to return to Madrid from the south, while the A-1 handles much of the traffic from the Sierra Norte and provinces such as Segovia or Burgos. Any incident on these roads can quickly lead to long queues when it coincides with the end of a summer Sunday.
The afternoon thus saw two isolated trouble spots, but without the problems lasting into the night. The queues at Aranjuez and Sieteiglesias disappeared and the roads returned to their usual flow after a Sunday return that was a little slower than expected.