Four roads take the crown
In the battle to reduce the number of road casualties in the Netherlands, there is a lot of emphasis on N-roads. From this year onwards, the government will invest heavily in making these roads safer. The minister concerned has now mapped out where things often go wrong.
The safety of N-roads remains a point of discussion. For example, VVN recently suggested that it would be better to lower the maximum speed to 60 km/h. The Hague has not yet responded to this, but from this year the cabinet will invest no less than €200 million in improving the safety of N-roads. At the request of Member of Parliament Barry Madlener (PVV), Minister Mark Harbers of Infrastructure & Water Management to map how often things go wrong on the N-roads.
Different indicators
Research agency Sweco comes up with various lists. Based on the number of fatal accidents (from 2017 to 2021), the N322 in the Betuwe comes out as the most dangerous N-road. There were ten fatal accidents there during that period and there were a total of 49 accidents with casualties. The N279 and N209 both follow with nine fatal accidents, but with the N279 there were a total of 87 accidents with victims, making the N279 the best in terms of social costs due to accidents: €22.2 million.
When looking at the accident density (number of accidents per km of N-road), the N514 near Wormerveer is the most unsafe. That road is only 1.2 km long and yet two fatal accidents occurred there during the mentioned period and there were a total of six accidents with victims. The even shorter N493 (1.1 km) is then in second place, with one fatal accident and 11 accidents with casualties.
The four unsafest N-roads
Sweco also investigated the crash rate (number of crashes corrected for traffic density) and then looked at this crash rate and the previously mentioned crash density of N-roads. This combination produces a list that possibly gives the best picture of the most dangerous N-roads in the country. There are six roads that have a higher crash rate than ‘desired’, nine N-roads whose crash density leaves something to be desired, and four roads that are above the set limits in terms of both crash rate and density. In that sense, you can consider the last four roads to be the most dangerous N-roads. These are the N482 (near Sliedrecht), N514 (near Wormerveer), N827 (near ‘s Heerenberg) and the N991 (near Delfzijl).
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl