Shoppers at Westfield Newmarket mall stuck in their cars for hours in traffic jam

Cars queue at Westfield Newmarket where traffic was delayed for hours. Photo / Coco Veber-Nichols

Shoppers have been trapped in their cars for hours as the queue exiting the carpark at an Auckland mall moved at a crawl.

One shopper told the Herald she had been stuck in her car in the Westfield Newmarket for about two and a half hours.

“At the moment, we’re sitting here not sure what to do,” she said at 6:30pm on Saturday.

“I feel like I’m going to have a panic attack. It’s absolutely scary being trapped in a mall.”

She told the Herald she and the daughter left the mall after a two-hour visit after being conscious of the time on their parking ticket.

“Obviously we didn’t expect to be stuck in the mall. We feel pretty trapped,” she said.

“There are two queues and nobody knows what is going on. This is the worst it’s ever been. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a traffic jam this bad,” she said.

Photo / Coco Veber-Nichols

The shopper said there was a lot of confusion as people became increasingly frustrated and tooted.

“I had to send my daughter out to get food as we were both quite hungry, but when she came back, she thought we had moved a metre.”

Another shopper told the Herald they paid for the parking around 3:32pm, got in the line to leave at 3:35pm didn’t move for a good 35 minutes.

“I left the car to see what was going on but aside from a line of cars, I couldn’t see anything,” she said.

“My brother and I were extremely frustrated, growing angry and bitter. Some people parked and went back to the mall, but we were hoping things would start to move.

“We were waiting so long to leave the mall that we weren’t sure the gate arm was going to work. We had to pay $25 and couldn’t leave!”

Westfield head office reportedly said the heavy traffic on Broadway is causing delays exiting the mall.

Westfield has been contacted for comment.