Many road users in Assen know it, the slippery roundabout on the Haarweg at the A28 exit. Last Tuesday it went wrong again. A 21-year-old motorcyclist slipped on the asphalt and was seriously injured. To prevent similar accidents in the future, the municipality of Assen wants to roughen the road surface soon.
A spokesperson indicates that Assen is closely monitoring the situation at the roundabout. “We do not have figures for the number of accidents, but we regularly measure the roughness of the asphalt. We did this again in September and it turned out that the asphalt was not rough enough. We also checked whether there was oil on the road surface. but that turned out not to be the case,” he says.
The cause of the wear is not known, but the municipality has suspicions: “We must not forget that a lot of traffic enters Assen via this roundabout, so it is quite possible that the asphalt wears out faster.”
“The Netherlands also has very low standards for the skid resistance of asphalt,” says the spokesperson. “If a road no longer passes an inspection, you can say that it is very slippery. So it really is an ice rink. Reason for us to tackle the De Haar roundabout now.”
The roundabout was overhauled again in 2020. The municipality chose one bypass to construct. This is a lane that is not part of the roundabout. Traffic entering Assen from the highway can bypass the roundabout.
The last measure dates from April this year. Then Assen placed a warning sign for slippery conditions on the roundabout.
The motorcyclist who was seriously injured last Tuesday has now been released from hospital and has not suffered any permanent damage from the fall. According to eyewitnesses, he lost control of his car while leaving the roundabout and subsequently crashed. They also state that there was apparently no reckless driving.
“Once a week I drive over the roundabout to work,” the injured man told RTV Drenthe in writing. “Normally I go over the bypass. It is somewhat straight, which is why I have never experienced smoothness before. It was the first time I took this job and things immediately went wrong. It didn’t help that it was damp either. I hope the accident has set something in motion,” he concludes.
Assen wants to start working on the roundabout very shortly.