Lanes still closed after fatal truck fire near Schiphol; Heavy rush hour traffic
Traffic between Amsterdam and Schiphol Airport was extra intense on Tuesday morning. A fatal accident last night involving a truck, two passenger cars, and a fire had the A9 highway closed near the airport until 7:42 a.m. this morning. The southern part of the A10 highway is also closed due to roadworks. The two closures combined resulted in kilometers and kilometers of traffic jams on the roads around Amsterdam.
The accident happened around 7:30 p.m. on Monday on the A9 near Badhoevedorp. According to NH, the truck crashed into one of the passenger cars, starting a fire. The person who died was in the passenger car.
Several firetrucks, ambulances, and a trauma team by helicopter responded to the scene. The highway was closed near Badhoevedorp in both directions. After firefighters extinguished the fire and the victims had been removed from the scene, the Rijkswaterstaat opened some lanes on the highway toward Alkmaar, but the rest remained closed for investigation and cleanup until 7:42 this morning.
The closure of the A10 South for roadworks meant that there was already extra traffic on the A9, which was designated as a detour route. So the accident there caused significant problems. At its peak, there were delays of about 45 minutes on the roads around Amsterdam on Tuesday morning.
The asphalt on the A9 still needs to be repaired, so the Rijkswaterstaat reopened the road with a speed limit of 70 kilometers per hour. That speed limit will apply for the entire day, until the asphalt can be fixed. That will likely happen after 9:00 p.m., a spokesperson for the Rijkswaterstaat told NOS.
