There has been a slight increase in the number of accidents on N-roads in the province, according to NH Nieuws. According to Safe Traffic Netherlands, the large number of accidents on N-roads has been going on for years. Especially the two-lane roads without crash barriers create dangerous situations.
Last Friday morning, a 13-year-old girl badly injured in an accident on the N203 near Castricum. She is believed to have fallen from her bicycle, ended up on the roadway and was subsequently hit by a car. It is one of the examples in the series of incidents on N roads over the past two months.
Last Monday a Horinees and a man came from Oudewater for life after an accident on the N506, the Provincialeweg near Hoorn. At the end of August, two women badly injured after a crash on the N9 near Schoorl. And so there are more examples.
Figures from the province of Noord-Holland show a slight increase in accidents on N-roads under their management in the past three months compared to the same period before. According to Rijkswaterstaat and Veilig Verkeer Nederland, accidents on N-roads occur with great regularity.
Headache file
As a result, the accidents on provincial roads have been a headache for almost all the above-mentioned parties for years. “The roads are often double-lane and have no crash barriers or verges in the middle,” says Rob Stomphorst of Veilig Verkeer Nederland. “A frontal collision is quickly made on such a road,” says the spokesman for Rijkswaterstaat.
But it is not only the infrastructure that causes unsafe situations on provincial roads time and again. “They are simply driving too fast,” said Stomphorst. “People have wrongly assumed that they can make up for time on the road.”
“People have wrongly believed that they can catch up on time on the road”
The accidents mean that the parties have to look for measures. For example, the province of North Holland has North Holland Road Safety Task drawn up. According to the province, a new approach is urgently needed as road safety has been declining in recent years.
The assignment focuses on a more regional approach. For example, the relative accident rates per 10,000 inhabitants in the Kop van Noord-Holland are higher than in Amsterdam. By really looking at each region, customization can be carried out.
In the Noordkop, for example, efforts are being made to realize more speed limiters (such as speed bumps), they want to set up 30 roads as residential areas (such as residential areas), so that people are more likely to keep to the speed limit and section checks are carried out.
Definitive solution
Nevertheless, a definitive solution seems far away, according to Veilig Verkeer Nederland. Behavior has not changed quickly and infrastructural measures are difficult to take due to the high costs. Building verges or placing concrete blocks to separate the lanes is quite expensive, according to the spokesperson.
“For example, we have now received 10 million from the government to invest in the N99 and the N9. A lot can be done about that, but dismantling a lane costs too much money. You might also have to move lanes. Quite a challenge in small towns and cities,” adds the Rijkswaterstaat spokesperson.
Safe Traffic Netherlands therefore advises to increase enforcement. Create the feeling that the police are watching. “That happens too little now, but it helps.”
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