Truck drives through neighborhood barbecue in Nieuw-Beijerland: several dead and injured

The neighborhood barbecue of IJsclub De Kom Zuidzijde in Nieuw-Beijerland had been going on for less than an hour when a red truck with Spanish registration stopped at the top of the dike. “I thought, the Haringvliet bridge is closed so maybe it has lost its way,” says Marian Koedood (63). It seemed as if the driver was asking the driver of a van for directions through the window. And then the unimaginable happens.

The truck dives down the dike and drives straight for the neighborhood barbecue where guests are just queuing for a sausage or a hamburger. Deafening screams, screams. Parents try to pull their children away from the truck at the last minute. Complete chaos and panic.

At least three people have died and an unknown number have been injured and taken to hospital. Police could not provide details on the identities of the victims after midnight. The driver of the truck was conscious after the drama. According to bystanders, he was spinning on his legs. “He was either completely drunk or became unwell”, according to eyewitnesses. He was taken by the police and has since been interrogated.

The emergency services were there very quickly, local residents say, who gathered together later in the evening in disbelief. In addition to ambulances and police, two trauma helicopters landed in the meadow and another was in the air.

There were about sixty people from the small village gathered: the elderly, young people, families with children. In the afternoon people who had signed up for it had canoeed. And then they had gathered in the armpit of the T-junction where the Zuidzijdsedijk meets the Langeweg. There where a large party tent and several picnic tables had been set up the day before.

A second or two, three quiet

The barbecue could not have taken place for two years because of corona. A board member had just given a speech. Local residents who were present tell us about how nice it was that it was now possible again. A new logo was announced. And around five o’clock the barbecue had started.

After the blow, there was silence for two or three seconds, Marian says. “If I hadn’t just grabbed some bread, I would have been under that truck.” Her husband Henk (61) immediately called 112 and looked where he could help. When ambulance staff and the police are present, she calls her daughter in Spijkenisse. She is shocked and jumps into her car.

Acting mayor Charlie Aptroot of the municipality of Hoeksche Waard did the same and spoke to those involved. He said he was “very touched by the disaster in Nieuw-Beijerland.”

When it gets dark, Marian, Henk, their daughter and neighbors will be watching all evening. “I can’t sleep anyway,” they say. Large lamps illuminate the scene of the disaster so that detectives, firefighters and others can do their work – shielded from the waiting journalists with black screens. A cherry picker lifts the charger up bit by bit. Forensic investigators work stiffly in the bright light. Black and silver hearses are ready. Black coffins are pushed inside. They ride out of the bright glow of the lamps and disappear into the darkness