Traffic chaos was averted yesterday morning when a truck transporting heavy machinery almost crashed into the footbridge in Aldo Moro Road, Marsa, stopping very close to it as the driver realised he would not go through.

Had he kept driving, the vehicle he was transporting would have hit the bottom part of the bridge, possibly damaging it and, no doubt, bringing traffic to a standstill in one of Malta’s busiest roads.

That is precisely what had ­happened in April when a trailer carrying an excavator crashed into the bridge, causing gridlock along the main thoroughfares of Marsa and surrounding towns.

That traffic jam even led to some flights being delayed when air crew got stuck in the tailback. Some Matsec exams also had to be postponed. The incident yesterday, which took place at about 10.25 a.m., had already caused long lines of traffic along the four-lane artery but with the help of a traffic warden the driver reversed into a side road to make way for the accumulating traffic.

In a similar incident last month, a trailer transporting a container just missed hitting the footbridge when the driver realised just in time he was not going to clear it.