More accidents at the Oudenaardsesteenweg test set-up

Thomas Detavernier, police zone Vlas: “The objective figures show that there have been slightly more accidents since the test set-up. Since the start of the test set-up, that is, in October 2021, there have been six accidents for which the police has drawn up an official report. official reports are drawn up when people have been injured. We also have the normal interventions without a report and of course there are many more.”

The set-up came about because drivers coming from the E17 could hardly estimate the traffic on the Oudenaardsesteenweg (N8). Do the drivers take the first ramp onto the E17, or the second ramp onto the R8? With yellow posts, the Agency is canceling one of the two lanes.

“Not by test set-up, but by driving behavior”

According to that Agency, recent accidents are mainly caused by driving behavior and not so much by the position. Eveline Vandecaetsbeek, Roads and Traffic Agency: “We feel that this is still a more safe situation. When you come from the E17, you really only have to take one lane into account. Yet we now see that a lot of accidents still happen, but they always have to do with traffic that ignores the traffic rules.Traffic coming from the E17 must give way to traffic on the N8, both cyclists and motorists.

The Agency plans to finalize the road by the summer in order to completely remove any confusion. There will be an evaluation with the city of Kortrijk next month.