Two hurt in crash involving five cars, three trucks; A27 near Utrecht reopened

A pile-up involving three trucks and five cars had the A27 highway closed at the Rijnsweerd junction towards Utrecht for several hours on Monday. Two people involved in the crash suffered injuries serious enough to require hospitalization. The highway was partially reopened by noon, and was fully reopened a couple of hours later, public works agency Rijkswaterstaat said.

The accident happened around 7:15 a.m. and authorities responded by shutting down traffic between Utrecht and Gorinchem. It took the department several hours to clear the road of the wrecked vehicles so they could at least reopen one lane. That happened at around 11:00 a.m. The guard rail also sustained significant damage.

The accident caused significant traffic problems around the city of Utrecht, with travelers’ organization ANWB even speaking of a deadlock at one point. Traffic in the other direction was also delayed as people slowed down to look at the accident.

At 8:20 a.m., the Rijkswaterstaat reported that this rubber-necker traffic jam was causing 85 minutes of delays. About an hour and a half later, drivers heading towards Utrecht were told to delay their trip because traffic was at a standstill on the A2 highway due to the A27 closure.

Repair crews managed to reopen the highway with a few hours to spare before the start of the evening rush hour. Nationally, there were no significant traffic jams by 2 p.m.