‘Unacceptable behavior’
There are still quite a few people with a blind spot for the red crosses on matrix boards. That became painfully clear again on Wednesday night when road workers were injured after a motorist ignored the red crosses. The director-general of Rijkswaterstaat is completely done with it.
Last Tuesday and Wednesday night things went horribly wrong on the A27 between Hilversum and Utrecht. There, road workers were busy on a lane that was closed with red crosses, but a truck driver nevertheless collided with the workers’ cars. It is the umpteenth incident in which red crosses above the road could not prevent a motorist from driving on a closed part of the road, resulting in an accident. In this case also with injuries as a result.
Michèle Blom, the director general of Rijkswaterstaat, has expressed herself in no uncertain terms on Twitter in response to this incident: “I am really furious. The umpteenth time that red crosses are ignored. Now with injured road workers and hospitalization of them. What needs to be done to stop this unacceptable behavior?” That’s a good question, because it seems that the penny hasn’t fallen for everyone yet, despite Rijkswaterstaat’s ‘Not VoorniX’ campaign. Two years ago, the CDA suggested laying down spike mats, but that plan didn’t make it. Now that Blom has spoken out so clearly, the question is whether and when The Hague will respond.
What do you think would be a good plan to avoid ignoring red crosses? Let me know in the comments.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl