Two killed, three hurt in head-on collision in Schagen

A head-on crash left two people dead and three others injured in ‘t Zand, a small village within Schagen, Noord-Holland. Police were not immediately able to report the conditions of the wounded people, and information about the ages and hometowns of the victims was also not released in the first hours after the crash.

The accident happened at around 11 a.m. on a stretch of the N249 provincial highway known locally as Anna Paulownaweg. Three vehicles were involved in the “serious collision,” police said. Nearly two hours later, fire fighters were still trying to get through a vehicle to remove a victim from one of the wrecked cars, the Noordhollands Dagblad reported.

Emergency vehicles with sirens blaring raced to the scene, one after another, on an otherwise quiet morning in Schagen. A trauma team traveling by helicopter then flew over the outskirts of the city at a low altitude. Dispatchers sent firefighters, police, and a half-dozen ambulances to the scene.

One of the vehicles involved in the crash remained on the roadway. At least one other vehicle wound up in the tall grass on the side of the road.

It was too early to tell what caused the accident, police told several media outlets. The road was closed to allow investigators to sours out what exactly had happened.