At the Moerdijk Bridge (A16) from Rotterdam to Breda, drivers have been stuck in traffic for hours. The road is closed due to three overturned trucks, which cannot be towed away because of the storm. “All the cars behind it have been standing still since then”, Chantal Klijzing knows. Her daughter Priscilla stood on the bridge for hours, along with her two children. “They were terrified.”
Just before four o’clock, the A16 towards Breda was closed because a truck had blown over. Soon after, two other trucks joined. According to Rijkswaterstaat, salvage of the cars was not possible because of the storm. Traffic has therefore been stuck for a long time on the A16 towards Breda.
Also Priscilla, Chantal’s daughter, who stood in the storm for hours with her car. “Everywhere it says that cars can drive through the hard shoulder, but my daughter was stuck there for hours. Everything is stationary there,” she knows. “She’s on that bridge in the middle of the storm in her little Peugeot 107. Can you imagine? Her two children were terrified.”
Her daughter is now out of traffic because she has been chasing a police car. “A police car just drove by with a sign ‘follow’, which was intended for another car. She drove behind it. I said to her: risk a ticket and follow them, then you’re gone.” But many other drivers are still there, she says. “That’s just a shame. Nothing is being done either, according to my daughter there were no emergency services there.”
Rijkswaterstaat announced just after nine o’clock that two trucks have now been removed. “A lane has been open for an hour and a half, so that traffic can pass again. The last truck will also be gone around 10:30.” The ANWB says that there is so much traffic on the A16 that it can take a very long time before the traffic jam is resolved.
Three trucks were blown over on Friday afternoon because of the storm: