“You barely see pedestrians. It’s really dangerous.” Alkmaarders from the area of the Korte Vondelstraat are shocked by the accident this weekend, in which an 86-year-old man died. But they are certainly not surprised. According to a neighbor, the intersection is even ‘a kind of Russian roulette’.
Back to Saturday around 7:20 PM. It is already dark when an 86-year-old pedestrian is hit by a car near the zebra crossing. The man dies of his injuries. Behind the wheel is an 81-year-old woman, she is going to the police station.
A spokesman for the police informs NH News that the investigation into the cause of the accident is in full swing. The driver will be heard at a later time. In any case, alcohol is not the cause, because a breath test shows that the woman had not drunk too much.
Local resident Gerard* can well imagine that the motorist simply overlooked the crossing man. “Always when I drive there, I think: oh no, here we go again. It really is sometimes a blind guess if you drive on.” He read the news articles about the fatal accident with abdominal pain.
Zebra crossing is higher due to bridge
The local resident parks his car in the Schelphoek garage, which is nearby. “I have to get over it every day. There and back.” A confusing, dangerous traffic situation, that’s how he describes it. “The pedestrian crossing is in the middle of the bridge, so you have to drive up on both sides and the headlights of oncoming traffic blind you. When it is dusk or dark, you only see that someone is crossing when they are in front of your car.” And he’s not the only one who thinks that way.
37 accidents in 5 years
Last year, the police were called eleven times for a traffic accident on the Korte Vondelstraat. 37 times in five years, figures show. These are not necessarily all collisions. Falls with a bicycle and hitting a tree are also included in those reports. “We are also not always called in the event of an accident,” said a spokesperson.
Once the investigation into the accident has been completed, the Public Prosecution Service will determine whether the 81-year-old motorist will be prosecuted. She can wait for this in freedom: the public prosecutor has decided that there is are no grounds to hold her.
The Spar supermarket is located a few meters from the zebra crossing. At the time of the accident, the store had just closed and the staff went home. The employees there are familiar with road (un)safety.
“The pedestrian crossing is insufficiently lit, so that it is not clearly visible at a somewhat greater distance. Crossers with dark clothing are hardly seen,” a spokesperson responds. “The Vondelstraat (which continues into the Korte Vondelstraat) is also driven too fast, especially in the evening.”
Gerard notices this too. “Cars are approaching fast. It is only much too late that they notice that they have to slow down at the zebra crossing.” For example, the 30 kilometers per hour sign is only after the zebra crossing.
The local resident complained about the ‘dangerous situation’ in 2019 Reporting Center for Unsafe Traffic – that message can be seen on the map below. “And I wasn’t the only one. I got thirteen votes from people who recognized themselves and another who reported the same situation ten. But nothing happened. Something has to change.”
There is also a lot of reaction to the articles about the accident on Facebook. “This is a shitty place when it’s dark. It also rained,” someone writes.
Another: ‘We have a good view of the situation from our apartment. Due to the diffused lighting just in front of the zebra, it is difficult to distinguish whether people are present.’
The supermarket wants to emphasize that you also have a responsibility as a pedestrian. Gerard has decided not to use the zebra crossing as a pedestrian anymore. “And I pay a lot of attention to it in the car. I drive very gently, but I still have to slam on the brakes regularly. It was an accident waiting to happen And now this past weekend has gone horribly wrong.”
The municipality of Alkmaar has been asked for specific figures and possible plans for improving road safety. They will come back to this.
*Gerard is a fictitious name, he does not want to be recognizable in the article. His real name is known to NH News.
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