Like many others, Serita saw the deadly traffic drama in Oud Gastel happen on Friday evening. She was the first to provide assistance after the collision, which killed two women and two children. “I opened the doors of the car and immediately saw that it was wrong.”
The accident took place around half past six at the intersection of the Blauwhekken with the Roosendaalsebaan. Two cars collide there. The impact killed two mothers and two children. A third child is injured.
The victims were all in the same car. The driver of the other car, a 27-year-old Roosendaler, has been arrested for dangerous driving. He was driving a black Mercedes, a rental car from Germany during the accident, police confirm.
“The traffic lights didn’t work and blinked orange. You had to pay attention.”
Serita saw the drama unfold right in front of her. A day after the accident, she is therefore still deeply upset by what she has seen. Serina lives in Gouda, but was visiting a friend in Roosendaal on Friday evening.
She was just driving home and was waiting at a traffic light on the road where the accident happened. Those traffic lights did not work and blinked orange – something other witnesses have also stated, according to the police.
“So we had to pay attention,” Serita says. “But then I suddenly see one car hitting the other very hard.” The Mercedes drove straight on Roosendaalsebaan, towards the highway. The other car, containing the victims, was just turning into the intersection at that moment.
“The bang was really unprecedented. The Mercedes drove way too fast. You can go 50 kilometers per hour on that road, but that car went twice as fast, I think. Maybe three times as fast.”
“I looked at the driver and said, ‘This is not good.'”
The car with the victims was thrown far after the collision, according to Serita. So far that the car ended up right in front of Serita’s car. “That must have been a few tens of meters further, because I was at another intersection. I could literally see the victims.”
Serita rushed to the car and opened the door to administer first aid. “I immediately saw that it was wrong,” she says. “I didn’t find what I wanted to find.” The driver of the other car had just arrived at that moment.
“I looked at him and said, ‘This isn’t right.’ He looked in the car and ran back to his own car. He then stayed with his car and didn’t come back to see the other two occupants of that Mercedes. Maybe they were bothered or startled. It was really a loud bang.”
“It was really very intense.”
The accident made a big impression on Serita. She gets victim support, just like other people who saw the accident happen. “It was quite busy on the road, so many people could see the collision. I also need that help, by the way. It was really intense,” she concludes.
Mayor Bernd Roks of the municipality of Halderberge spoke out on Saturday about the terrible accident, and in particular about the driving behavior of the Mercedes. He says he is ‘very outraged’ about ‘young men with rented cars who drive through the municipality’.
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