Sint-Niklaas The horrorcrash on the E17 in Waasmunster, belgium from Tuesday night, where the police have a road block position to a fleeing car with a French license plate to intercept, raises many questions. In that crash were, after all, also five carriages of citizens, which will also halt had to keep the blockade. One person got it for him. “Instead of us a way out to offer, have we as human blockade served. I can’t really grasp,” says a director from Waasmunster. “I also understand still that there is no deaths.”
Tuesday night wanted to the police in Brasschaat, a vehicle check, but the driver of the heavy Audis with French license plate slapped on the flight. It came to a hallucinatory chase through E19, on Antwerp Ring, by the kennedy tunnel on the E17, direction Gent. In the chase were dizzying speeds of up to more than 260 km/h achieved. Just for Waasmunster, belgium, the E17 is fully closed to the fleeing car to intercept. It was, however, totally wrong. The Audi drove at high speed into several vehicles that still stood before the road block. Three cars, a van and a truck were hit. The driver of the fleeing car was nabbed. The man had a bag with two pounds of cannabis.
The price for the including of the offender, however, was large: the director of one of the cars concerned injured, a lot of vehicles were to scrap is reduced. So also the car of the owner of the company Steps Platjouw from Waasmunster. After the accident, he realized that he escaped. “I arrived around half 12 back from Antwerp. From the kennedy tunnel I saw, every exit and on every bridge over the highway police. Just beyond the access and exit system, of Sint-Niklaas-West was the whole highway stopped. I was there, along with a number of other cars at the same time. The police commanded us to stop. I came there as a third car in the middle lane. We have there a few minutes ago. And then was the culprit on our run in.”
Way out
“It went very quickly all. The most remarkable thing is that we have no way out got. We are used as a safety net, as a human blockade, so it seems. Why did the police ask us to no way out is offered at the exit Sint-Niklaas? The offender could still be better going straight, so there is certainly no citizens would become involved,? I can’t really grasp it. If you have a road block raises, it is not intended that ordinary citizens are also for them to stop, especially if you have a car at that speed coming in? I understand still that there is no deaths.”
Lawyer
“I don’t wonder what will happen. I am first and foremost glad that I can tell. I like physical burden. But also my car is completely destroyed. I expect that I need to be compensated word, the question is whether this will happen by a perpetrator from outside the country. Or would I have to recover it from the police? Provisionally, I’m waiting still. I consulted with my lawyer.”
“Thorough investigation”
The public prosecutor’s office of East-Flanders is waiting for this moment, on the conclusions of the verkeersdeskundigen. “The investigation is fully engaged and that happens very, very, very thoroughly,” says An Schoonjans of the public prosecutor of East-Flanders. “The chase, the circumstances of the accident, the discovery of drugs in the car until the intervention of the police and the roadblock: all aspects are examined. The verkeersdeskundige is still busy with his research. That takes some time. It is now still too early to make conclusions, to formulate. I understand of course the concerns and questions of the stakeholders. Again, everything is very thoroughly investigated.”