Kessel residents shocked after teen dies in car crash into sewer pumping station
Residents of Kessel were left shaken Friday night after a single-vehicle crash killed a 17-year-old boy and seriously injured an 18-year-old, De Limburger reports. Both victims are from Peel en Maas, authorities said.
The car veered off Baarloseweg shortly before midnight, first striking a parked vehicle and breaking off a wheel, which hit another parked car. The vehicle then slammed into a small brick sewer pumping station, scattering debris across the area.
“It was an enormous impact. We sat upright in bed immediately,” said Erik van Heugten, whose home is next to the pumping station. “Our bedroom is on the ground floor, and we were already asleep. After the shock, I went outside. I saw the car with smoke coming from it. A neighbor was already out with a fire extinguisher. 112 was called. There were two people inside, so we tried to help.”
Emergency responders removed one of the occupants, who was resuscitated on the scene and taken to a hospital. Help for the other victim arrived too late. “They were still working through the night. Around three a.m., I understood that the mother of one of the victims arrived. We heard her screaming. Very tragic,” Van Heugten told De Limburger.
Police are investigating the cause of the crash, including the car’s speed. The road curves near a speed bump at the intersection of Baarloseweg and the road to the Markt. The vehicle had been traveling from the direction of the Rijksweg toward the Maas. Authorities also examined the structural condition of the pumping station on Saturday.
