Eight days after the last accident on the roundabout of the Burgemeester Kasteleinweg and the Dorpsstraat in Aalsmeer, it has happened again. This time, no one was reportedly injured, but the accident happened in the morning rush hour, just like last week, and a bus was involved. It’s just another accident at this place.
The damage was recorded by Monique de Haas, who lives next to the roundabout. “Again a bus shoveled a car off the road,” she says with the photos she took shortly after the accident.
She didn’t see the accident happen, but her photos make it clear: the bus – which here uses the bus lane that runs across the roundabout – rammed the car in the side and pushed it onto the cycle path. There is a large dent on the side of the car.
Build file
No one was injured, but police cannot confirm that. He has not been on site, says De Haas. “I called them, but they are not coming.” Given the regularity with which the accidents happen, she finds it strange that the police do not come if there are no injuries. “This is important for the file”
At the accident last week one person was injured: a cyclist was hit by a Connexxion bus coming from the Aalsmeerdebrug and approaching the roundabout. Because the cyclist was already on the roundabout, the bus should have given way to the cyclist. Buses leaving the roundabout must also give priority to cyclists (note shark teeth in the photo below).
A different priority situation applies to cars and buses. As soon as a bus crosses the roundabout, traffic lights on both sides of the roundabout turn red to warn motorists of approaching buses. Sometimes that goes wrong, like with this accident at the end of Marchalthough it is still clear whether this morning’s motorist also missed a red light.
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In addition to local residents, the Connexxion bus company also raised the alarm with the municipality of Aalsmeer about the safety of the roundabouts. “The reason was that drivers have reported to us that dangerous situations regularly occur,” a spokesperson said at the time. The drivers have since been instructed to drive extra carefully, but today things went wrong again.
Talk about solutions
The spokesperson informed NH today that two weeks ago there was a meeting between the Amsterdam Transport Region, the municipality, the province and the police about the situation. Possible solutions have been discussed. Connexxion will soon also be invited for a meeting to discuss, spokesperson Rick de Vries told NH News today.
The municipality told earlier think of solutions such as thresholds and traffic lights that only turn green when the bus has slowed down sufficiently. A third option is to remove the bus lane on the roundabouts and allow the bus to follow the traffic on the roundabouts.