B737 captain reported making a sudden stop during taxi to avoid collision with another aircraft.

Attributes
ACN	1597140
Time
Date	201811
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ORD.Airport
State Reference	IL
Environment
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737-800
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Taxi
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Multiengine
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Conflict Ground Conflict Critical

Narrative:

Received and followed taxi instructions perfectly-we were not told to give way to any other aircraft. I believe somewhere in the vicinity of taxiway A18 and ee; we had to stop unexpectedly due to a plane taxiing from our left to our right at a fair speed. Had we not seen them prior to entering the intersection; there may have been a collision. The controller was overloaded and; after query; claimed that they had been stepped on while trying to contact us.ground control in ord is overloaded quite often and issues so many instructions without thoroughly clearing all conflicts at intersections. [They should] provide more ground controllers so that each sector can be more safely administered.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737 Captain reported making a sudden stop during taxi to avoid collision with another aircraft.

Narrative: Received and followed taxi instructions perfectly-we were not told to give way to any other aircraft. I believe somewhere in the vicinity of taxiway A18 and EE; we had to stop unexpectedly due to a plane taxiing from our left to our right at a fair speed. Had we not seen them prior to entering the intersection; there may have been a collision. The controller was overloaded and; after query; claimed that they had been stepped on while trying to contact us.Ground control in ORD is overloaded quite often and issues so many instructions without thoroughly clearing all conflicts at intersections. [They should] provide more ground controllers so that each sector can be more safely administered.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.