AMSTERDAM — One person was killed and another severely injured as up to 60 cars were involved in a massive pile up on the A15 motorway near Ressen junction in the east of the Netherlands at about 7am on Tuesday.

Police said about 13 people received minor injuries in the chain collision and were transported to hospitals in Nijmegen and Arnhem, newspaper De Telegraaf reported.

Another 60 shocked motorists and passengers involved in the pile up were taken by bus to a police training centre in Elst. The Victim Assistance Bureau has been called in to help shelter and comfort those involved in the accident.

Police partly opened the north-bound side of the A15 at about 10am, allowing traffic to proceed in a Rotterdam-bound direction. But the clean-up on the south-bound lanes is expected to continue into the afternoon.

The accident occurred in thick fog at the start of the morning peak-hour and De Telegraaf said the accident transformed the A15 into a row of twisted steel. Between 50 and 60 cars were left scattered across the entire breadth of the motorway.

There were about six trucks found wedged in between passenger vehicles and one car was for a large part completely pushed under a work van. Another van was seen lying on its side in a canal alongside of the motorway.

One shocked motorist said she was about to join the motorway traffic when she suddenly saw a line of break lights. She said it was misty, but the visibility was not that bad.

“I heard a series of loud claps and went fully on the brakes. I was scared that someone might drive into the back of my car, but fortunately that didn’t happen,” she said.

Meanwhile, 15 separate collisions involving at least 30 vehicles were reported on Tuesday morning on the A67 motorway, which connects Eindhoven with Antwerp in Belgium.

The collisions occurred in very thick fog between Eersel and the De Hogt junction on the De Hogt-bound lanes, news service nu.nl said.

The collisions did not lead to serious delays, but police were forced to close the motorway between the Dutch-Belgian border and Eersel after four trucks collided with each other. One person was injured in that collision.

[Copyright Expatica News 2004]

Subject: Dutch news