The heat ensures particularly high temperatures. The asphalt was already between 42 and 46 degrees on Monday in Brabant and Tuesday it will be even warmer. Rijkswaterstaat put the heat protocol into effect. That means that stranded motorists no longer have to wait along the highway in the event of a breakdown. Instead, they are taken to a safe place as quickly as possible.
“Beach with bad luck, make sure you look up the shade behind the crash barrier through a tree,” advises road inspector Tobias Jansen of Rijkswaterstaat. “Make sure you have enough drinking water with you and take an umbrella with you, because you can also use it as a parasol.”
Normally stranded motorists have to arrange help themselves, but with the extreme heat they are now taken off the road as quickly as possible. “We remove every stranded motorist from the road together with our Berger,” says Jansen.
“Asphalt temperatures go up, help can take a long time and we just don’t want people to be in a vehicle with this heat for so long. That is why we will at least remove them from the road as quickly as possible.” The stranded motorists are then taken to locations where they can get shelter and water, such as gas stations.
Overheating
Jansen warns that people often underestimate the heat. Overheating and being unwell lurking, especially along roads without shade or facilities. “We still see too often people who have no water with them or are actually not prepared for it. People don’t realize how hot it can be next to the highway. It is and remains really dangerous.”
They see the crowds rising at Esso Station Esso Kriekampen in Oirschot. Many motorists make a stopover to get something to drink, including Marc Somers from Dongen: “I’m a lot on the road, so we stop at a gas station here to get a cold water or something else.”
Sitemanager Jos van Gulick supplements the water supply several times a day. “We have to drag onto the stocks. We got a lot extra today. And we have screwed everything up for this period anyway, so let’s come.”
Extra measures
Many travelers take extra measures to defy the heat. This is also the case with Toon Klaasen from Berkel-Enschot. “I ensure enough water on board and occasionally some cooling with air conditioning.” Despite the heat, he continues to go on the road every day. “It’s just my profession and tomorrow another day, then we’ll just go on the road again.” He actually likes the heat. “I can handle it very well.”
Bert Oomen from Breda is not worried by the warm weather. “I brought a cold can of fresh. And water for the road. You have to drink that, whether you want or not, especially if you are older.” In the parking lot he quietly paints an apple. “You can play and hunt, then you are somewhere two to three minutes earlier, but stressed. Now I am calm and relaxed.”
Air conditioning
“I have standard water with me and always make sure the air conditioning is doing,” says Boris Vinogradski from Bergen op Zoom. “I will at least go out of the car and look up the shade. Not too much outside, not too much in the sun.”
He is now with a loan car, but can better prepare for the heat with his own electric car. “I just turn it on ten minutes in advance with the app and make sure I enter a cooled car.” Somers emphasizes the importance of air conditioning and coolness: “We just try to sit in the cold as much as possible, air conditioning, cold water: then we will get there automatically.”