Weekend massacre on Belgian roads

8 November 2004

BRUSSELS – Investigations are under way after seven serious accidents on Belgium’s roads at the weekend, in which seven people died and several were injured.

In one accident, a car that was stolen early Saturday evening was crashed into a wall several hours later at Petigny near Couvin.

The driver, who was from Dinant, died.

Dinant magistrates sent an expert to the scene to examine the causes of the accident.

On the same night a 20-year-old man A man aged 20 died in a crash on a road near Ypres.

It is still unclear why he lost control of his car and smashed into a manhole at the side of the road.

A third driver caused mayhem on the E42 at Froyennes near Tournai.

Police are investigating why Andre Desmet, a 46-year-old man from Dottignies, was driving the wrong way up the motorway in his Nissan 4 X 4.

Driving in the direction Lille-Tournai, Desmet was in the middle of the two lanes of traffic when he hit a Peugeot car coming the other way.

The four young French people who were in the car were seriously injured and were taken to hospital in Tournai.

Desmet’s car then hit a second Peugeot, killing both its French driver, 20-year-old Quentin Desplanques, from Blandecq, and its passenger, who has still to be identified.

In the early hours of Saturday morning, at 4.15am, two other cars were involved in a head-on collision on Chaussee de Ghislenghien at Thoricourt.

A man aged 19 from Ecaussinnes died in the smash.

The driver of the other car was taken to hospital in Tilleriau with multiple fractures.

Firemen from Soignies and the Enghien police were scrambled to the scene of the accident and an investigating magistrate from Mons also attended to try and find out why the accident happened.

A little later in the morning, at 5.30am, emergency teams were alerted to yet another accident in the same place on the same road.

A driver who had crashed into a tree was taken to Tilleriau.

Another young driver died when he crashed his VW Golf into a tree at 1am on Saturday morning.

Firemen from Fosses-la-Ville rushed to the accident at Rue Saint-Roch at Biesme, near Mettet, but the 20-year-old man had already died.

He was identified as Michael Velque, a well-known sportsman in Biesme who played for his town’s team in the Namur division 2 and played mini-football in the national DBS Mettet division 3.

And another young man aged 22, from Ekeren died in a head-on crash on Saturday at 2.30pm.

Four young people were also injured in the accident on Brasschaat in the province of Antwerp.

Two of them, both young girls, were described as being in a critical condition.

Subject: Belgian news