Fatal accidents near Roosendaal and Gouda as icy road warning continues into Saturday
One person was killed and several others were hurt in a multi-vehicle traffic accident on Friday night in Rucphen, Noord-Brabant. Separately, one person was killed and other passengers were hurt when a car careened off a Gouda road and rolled over into water. Another rollover accident in Gelderland also left a 72-year-old woman dead.
Nearly all of the Netherlands was under a weather warning for icy road conditions overnight and on Saturday morning. Since 7 p.m., on Friday, Rijkswaterstaat spread about 882,000 kilograms of salt on over 12,200 kilometers of roadway. The Code Yellow Weather Warning was expected to expire everywhere by the afternoon. The Wadden Islands was the only area not under a weather alert.
Police on Saturday morning were still trying to sort what exactly happened near Rucphen on the A58 at about 8:50 p.m. the night before. What was clear was that there were two accidents in rapid succession on the westbound lanes leading towards Roosendaal-Oost.
Police, firefighters and paramedics raced out to the scene, and a trauma team was sent by helicopter, records show. Accident investigators and infrastructure agency Rijkswaterstaat confirmed that one person was dead at the scene, and that they were working to notify next of kin.
"We are trying to get an idea of what happened in the accident," police said. Witnesses who drove by were urged to contact investigators. "It is very important that we speak to everyone who has seen anything."
The A58 was closed in both directions during the investigation, and to allow road workers to make repairs. The Rijkswaterstaat traffic monitoring service did not show a closure along the route at 9:15 a.m. on Saturday. Gritter trucks were also brought in to sprinkle salt over the surface of the road.
There was also a massive response from emergency workers on the N207 in Gouda at about 3:20 a.m. when a car left the roadway and wound up overturned in water. That happened on a stretch of road known as the Schoonhovenseweg.
"One passenger died and two people were taken to hospital," police said. The emergency response included a trauma team sent by helicopter, and a fire department unit sent to help colleagues struggling to cope mentally with the trauma.
Fire fighters had to remove the victims from the vehicle, but also struggled to reach them, according to Omroep West. Firefighters had to use a metal ladder as a bridge between a hedge and the car on its side in the water. The cause of the accident remained under investigation.
Just ten kilometers north of there, another car also wound up in a watery ditch off the shoulder of the Dammekant in Bodegraven. Photos from the scene showed tiretracks in the frost on the icy road surface that suggested the car changed direction quickly, possibly from losing traction.
The accident happened at about 7:40 a.m. on Saturday. It was not immediately reported if there were any injuries.
Police in Gelderland also said that a woman was killed after a car crashed into a tree in Duiven. That accident happened at 6:45 p.m. on Loostraat.
After hitting the tree, the car landed upside-down on the roadway. First responders were unable to revive the woman, and she was pronounced dead at the scene, Omroep Gelderland reported.
The 72-year-old victim was a resident of the Gelderland village. The cause of the accident was not released on Saturday morning.
