Code orange icy roads warning in Limburg, Noord-Brabant; Multiple accidents overnight
Icy roads are causing very dangerous driving conditions in Limburg and Noord-Brabant on Friday morning. A code orange weather warning applies to these two provinces. A code yellow warning covers several others. Only the coastal provinces are unaffected. The slippery conditions caused multiple accidents overnight. Someone died in Zelhem.
The meteorological institute KNMI expects the worst of the iciness to melt away in Limburg and Noord-Brabant by 10:00 a.m., after which a code yellow warning will apply. The KNMI also issued a code yellow fog warning for Limburg, warning of visibility less than 200 meters in some places.
Friesland, Groningen, Drenthe, Overijssel, Gelderland, Flevoland, and Utrecht are all covered by a code yellow icy roads warning. The ice should melt away through the course of the morning, the KNMI expects.
The Rijkswaterstaat and ANWB both urged road users to drive extra carefully on Friday morning due to the icy roads and poor visibility in Limburg. Despite the weather conditions, the ANWB expects no major problems during rush hour. Friday morning’s rush hour is typically quiet with few traffic jams, the travelers’ organization said. By 7:27 a.m., the ANWB recorded only one traffic jam on Dutch roads, on the A12 between The Hague and Bezuidenhout. The road there is closed for road works.
The icy roads caused multiple accidents overnight, especially in the east of the country. A car driver was killed in a collision between two vehicles on the N315 near Zelhem in the Achterhoek. The driver of the other car got hurt. The police said that the road was so slippery there that even walking on the road was “a challenge,” NOS reports.
Earlier in the evening, the Oost Nederland police were handling ten collisions at the same time in Gelderland and Overijssel. The accidents weren’t necessarily all icy roads-related “But that is an indication that it is slippery,” a police spokesperson told the broadcaster. “That is far above average. We don’t even have that many accidents during the morning rush hour or the evening rush hour.”
A trauma doctor from the MST hospital in Enschede told RTV Oost that the emergency room is “full” of patients with fractures and head injuries.
