Traffic simulation for NATO summit a success

Duminică, 30 martie 2008, 22:58 English | Bucharest

Authorities stroke their own balance after the general simulation for the NATO summit about to take place in Bucharest. The conclusion: the simulation achieved its goals and was a success. The simulation even included NATO security officials, who found the coordination capacity of Romanian authorities as remarkable, Realitatea TV informs. On the other hand, the simulation turned the traffic in Bucharest in pure hell and even ambulances with emergency cases got stuck. Furthermore, the drivers were not informed in any way on the routes they should take for the detour.

The air traffic was also perturbed because of the simulation. Three flights failed to leave on schedule because many of the passengers didn't make it to the airport in proper time. One flight was cancelled.

Still, NATO officials noted that the security measures were not aggressive. The conclusion of the NATO security chiefs was that the restricted areas were not excessive, compared to similar reunions in other countries. The summit commandant thanked the citizens for their understanding.

In order to see exactly what problems may appear during the reunion, authorities stressed all institutions to a maximum level, concentrating the events scheduled to take place in 4 days in only 9 hours. The unique corridor connecting the Otopeni airport to the Parliament became functional yesterday and the access of other cars than the official ones was forbidden. Over 60 official car lines covered the distance at short, well-determined intervals.

Despite the high level of alert, the citizens didn't panic, the presence of snipers being extremely discreet. All actions were monitored from a single command point.