traffic accidents

To reduce the number of casualties on Dutch roads, it is necessary to equip all cars with breathalyzers, speed limiters and a device that makes it impossible to use a cellphone while driving, National Police commissioner Egbert-Jan van Hasselt said to the Telegraaf.

According to the commissioner, motorists' behavior is getting worse and worse. "Distraction, alcohol and speeding in traffic are increasingly often the cause of accidents", Van Hasselt said to the newspaper. "I appeal to politicians to work on this."

Minister Melanie Schultz van Haegen of Infrastructure is working on a law that will ban the use of a smartphone while cycling. That means no more texting or calling from your bike, a spokesperson for the Ministry confirmed to newspaper AD on Monday. 

Alcohol use costs Dutch society between 2.3 billion and 2.9 billion euros a year, according to a study by health organization RIVM in the possession of newspaper Trouw.

The Netherlands is the most unsafe place in Europe for cyclists. Over the past years a quarter of people killed in traffic accidents in the country were cyclists. The worldwide average is 8 percent, according to accident figures the European Commission published.

Thousands of fallow deer in the Amsterdam Waterleiding dunes near Zandvoort may be shot in an effort to preserve biodiversity in the region, the court ruled in a case brought by Fauna Protection

With more than 900 accidents last year, the Amsterdam ring road A10 is the most dangerous highway in the Netherlands, according to a study done by traffic information service VID.

The number of traffic accidents involving cars declined last year. In 2014 insurers recorded 462 thousand insurance claims after a traffic accident, compared to 483 thousand in 2013. The road is most dangerous at the start of the school year and during morning and evening rush rush hour due to the low hanging sun.

The Royal Dutch Touring Club (ANWB) wants there to be closer investigation into the number of traffic accidents that happened recently. The Club has not exact figures, but has a feeling that it is increasing.

The police been has been very busy again this weekend with accidents, stabbings and shootings. Here is an overview.

Crime

On Sunday, the police of The Hague arrested three men and a woman in connection with the discovery of a dead man early Sunday morning. The body was laying in the courtyard of an apartment complex in the Schilderswijk, the Hague.

Police suspect that the man was killed. The identity of the victim is not yet known.