“Another traffic -dead”, local residents of the N629 sigh at Oosteind. Last Monday evening a man was killed in a frontal collision with a funeral car. The residents hope that the road in front of their house will be tackled as quickly as possible. And although the plans for a new safe road have been there for a long time, the province says that the nitrogen crisis cannot take place for the time being.
The local residents heard a huge thump on Monday evening, when a funeral car and two other cars collided head -on. A 44-year-old man from Lelystad was seriously injured and later died in the hospital. Four other wounded also had to go to the hospital. A deceased person was transported in the funeral car at the time of the accident.
Adrie Huijben lives in a side street of the road. She sat in the garden with her daughter and son -in -law when the bang came. “At first I thought the sound of the contract worker found out,” she says. Her neighbor Marja Brouwers also heard the accident happen. “It was a very hard blow. It was huge after it.”
“The accident is the result of this road.”
From the driveway, Adrie and her neighbor looked at what happened on the road. “We all saw emergency services. It was scary, very scary. Really intense,” says Adrie. “One bowl of misery,” adds neighbor Marja.
“The accident is the result of this road,” continues Marja. “Especially in the evening there is often more than 100 kilometers per hour. This road has been talking about for so long. I have been thinking for twenty years. And now there is another victim,” says Adrie. “”
The province also agrees that there are many accidents on the road. Together with the municipality of Dongen and Oosterhout, they have been working for years to divert the N629 along the Wilhelminakanaal. For years there was a lot of protest against that, because the process would go past two nature reserves. In the end, the Council of State ruled that the road could come.
But since then, the nitrogen crisis has thrown a spanner in the works. Everything was done to stay within the nitrogen standards. The traffic model, which calculates how much traffic is expected, was adjusted. The maximum speed would be reduced and there were plans for a fast bike path between Tilburg and Oosterhout.
“Too early to say that the layout of the road has something to do with the accident.”
In May, Deputy Stijn Smeulders (Mobility) announced that all these measures are not sufficient, and that there is therefore no prospect of the realization of the road for the time being.
In a reaction to Monday evening’s accident, the province says that it is not yet clear how this tragic accident could have happened. “It is therefore too early to say whether the layout of the road has something to do with the accident,” says a spokesperson.
Now that it is not clear when the N629 will ever be diverted, the province will see in the coming months what measures it can take to make the situation safer.
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