Rody (34) saw a truck driving down the dike in the Netherlands, right at his wife and children: “I didn’t see them right away and feared for their lives” | Abroad

“I was very lucky,” Rody says, still stunned. It is about five or five thirty on Saturday afternoon when Jongebreur arrives at the barbecue with his family. “We live here at number 25, the barbecue is organized every year for the neighborhood. We had watched Formula 1 qualifying and had just arrived. I estimate that there were at least fifty people.”

Jongebreur is sitting at the side of one of the tables at the bottom of the dike, looking up. “Suddenly I see a truck pull up and shoot straight down the dike, it seemed as if it took the bend too wide.”

The Dutchman barely manages to jump away with his daughter. “My wife and son were there too, I didn’t see them and I feared for their lives.” Instinctively, Jongebreur runs to the truck and looks underneath. “I saw several victims, a man was trapped under the rear wheel, someone in the front, a terrible sight.”

He then jumps into the cab of the truck, stops the engine and takes out the key. A moment later he can breathe a sigh of relief: his son and wife are alive. However, both are badly battered. “My daughter has a head injury from the flying table that hit her. My wife has been injured in the forehead.” He himself notices that his hand is bleeding and he tries to staunch the wound.

Almost immediately, Jongebreur jumps into the car with his family, on the way to the hospital. “We couldn’t help on the spot anyway and were injured.” On the highway to Rotterdam he encounters a whole escort of emergency services, who rush to the scene of the accident.

Jongebreur himself is allowed to go home with his son. “However, I slept very badly last night,” he confesses. “I woke my son up five or six times to make sure he was okay.” In the morning he immediately drives back to the hospital to visit his wife and daughter. “Except for my wife, it is hard for my daughter, she is 9 and consciously experienced the accident. Luckily my son is a lot younger.”

And now he’s back in the fateful spot at 10 a.m. Sunday morning. “I just wanted to see what it’s like.” He also hopes to get clarity about his properties. “I lost my shoes and mobile phone, my bank card was also in the phone case.”

Jongebreur says that he has not yet been heard by the police as an eyewitness. He tells about the 46-year-old driver of the truck – driving for the Spanish company El Mosca – that he gave a very strange impression immediately after the fatal accident. “He was talking nonsense.”