The N65 between Tilburg and Den Bosch is a ‘race track’. Local residents are no longer surprised by fatal accidents such as those of last Friday night. They think there really should be a trajectory control.
Shaking their heads, Ruud Leijs and Mark Janssen look across the road. There you can see the sea of flowers that was laid down for the 20-year-old Tilburger who died on Friday night. “In this 40-metre stretch, there have been more fatal accidents in the past few years. And dozens of smaller accidents. All the trees here have been damaged,” explains Leijs.
“They easily drive 120 kilometers per hour here.”
Leijs has been living with his wife for 35 years in his farm on the Bosscheweg, which is located right next to the N65. Janssen lives in the house next door. There is a berm of one meter between the Bosscheweg and the N65.
“The problem is that people know exactly where the speed cameras are. They then hold back and as soon as they pass that pole, the gas goes back on,” says Leijs.
And that accelerator pedal is more often than not pressed harder than 80 kilometers per hour as indicated, he says. “They easily drive 120 here.”
“Sometimes I’m afraid they’ll drive into my house”
That also scares Leijs and his neighbor, “There is no crash barrier or anything between the N65 and our road. I am sometimes afraid that they will drive into my house like that,” says Janssen.
And that almost happened two years ago. A truck then drove through the berm against the tree in the front yard.
“Imagine if that tree hadn’t been there and you were drinking a cup of tea in the living room. Then you would have been done.” The damage was not too bad in the end, but the fear has been considerable since then.
“We want there to be a trajectory control.”
The neighbors and a number of other residents near the Bosscheweg therefore want the municipality and Rijkswaterstaat to do something about the high speeds. “These poles don’t help, that’s for sure. We want there to be a section control, then you will see that accidents happen less often,” says Leijs.
If that route control is not going to happen, both Leijs and Janssen are thinking about moving. “I’ve lived here for 50 years and every year they have gone faster. That only gets worse and there will come a time when things really go wrong,” says Janssen.
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