A spontaneous demonstration against the corona measures caused a lot of nuisance on the Brabant highways on Sunday. Protesters with cars full of flags and texts spontaneously turned on their flashing lights and braked suddenly. This went wrong on the A2 near Leende and five cars collided with each other.
Thijs Jansen from Amsterdam drove right behind the pile-up. “We had problems with those protest cars before,” says Thijs. “In total I may have seen twenty of those cars. Not all together, but spread over the highway. And on all the viaducts there were people. Sometimes with tractors.”
Things went wrong for Leende. “Suddenly everyone put on the brakes. Fortunately, we were able to stop in time, but five cars were on top of each other in front of us. That had gone pretty fast.”
No protest cars were involved in the accident itself. “I didn’t see any cars with flags or texts standing still,” says Thijs. “I did see parents with small children, for example.”
According to some reports, trucks were also involved in the protest against the corona measures. But Thijs has not seen it. “There was a single truck along the side, but I have no idea whether they were protesting. They were not involved in the accident.”
A police spokesperson says the exact cause of the accident is still unknown, but that the accident was close to a group of show cars. “It happened very close to the convoy.” The police hopes to find out what the cause of the pile-up was based on statements from those involved. As far as is known, no one was injured.
After the collision at Leende, the group of protest cars continued in the direction of Tilburg and Breda. Convoys of trucks and cars also spontaneously took to the road in other places across the country on Sunday afternoon. Convoy Nederland Nieuws was called up on the Telegram channel to ‘tour around the province’.
The action seems to be prompted by the so-called Freedom Convoy in Canada, where thousands of people are protesting against the corona rules.