Two dead in New Year's Eve car crash

Two men from Amsterdam (61 and 68) died early Wednesday morning when the car they were traveling from a New Year’s Eve party ended up in a ditch. Another passenger of the vehicle (64) ended up in a hospital; a fourth (66) escaped with minor injuries. The crash happened not far from the party the men had been at in Hollandsche Rading (De Bilt). “We had watched fireworks together,” a neighbor said. The men left around 2.00am, but apparently a tire of their car skidded while they were taking a corner, landing the vehicle belly-up in a ditch. One of the men on the backseat managed to crawl out and he dragged out the man next to him. Someone from a nearby house tried to help drag out the two men in the front, but for them the help came too late. “This is a horrible start of the year,” Mayor Arjen Gerritsen of De Bilt said. He had rushed to the scene of the accident. Police said the alcohol levels of all four passengers will be checked.