Dendermonde (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – The Mechelseste enweg in Dendermonde resulted in a serious injury to a woman when she became trapped under a truck. Hospital staff transported the female victim. Traffic congestion lasted after the accident, but the roadways are now fully accessible.
An incident at Mechelsesteenweg Dendermonde ended in critical injuries when a woman was pulled 20 meters along by a truck. The incident happened at 14:15 as the woman tried to cross the highway at the location where Mechelse Poort meets.
Emergency services rushed the victim to Sint-Blasius Hospital following the incident, yet the truck driver showed symptoms of shock. Emergency responders delayed traffic after the collision until the affected road was reopened.
What are the road safety trends in Dendermonde and the surrounding areas?
The Belgian Road Safety Institute reported 33,843 traffic accidents in Flanders in 2022, where trucks caused 2,473 crashes. The development of Dendermonde into an important transport centre near E17 and E40 highways led to an increase in traffic accidents with heavy vehicles during the past five years.
During 2021, the Dendermonde police zone documented 147 injury-endangering vehicle crashes, of which trucks and buses accounted for 12%. Vias Institute’s research in 2023 showed that intersections along Mechelsesteenweg hold positions among the 15 most dangerous locations in East Flanders where motorists meet vulnerable road users such as cyclists and moped riders.
Research by federal police shows driver distraction leads to 40% of vehicle accidents involving trucks throughout Belgium in addition to blind spot collisions causing 22% of truck-related fatalities. Each year, the Sint-Blasius Hospital handles approximately 85 critical cases of traffic accident injuries, according to its 2022 annual report.
A 2021 Flemish government audit discovered that the 2019 redesign of Mechelsesteenweg, which expanded bicycle lanes but kept narrow intersections, was insufficient to keep trucks separate from other vehicles.
The Dendermonde local authorities conducted speed checks that grew by 30% since 2020, but data from the East Flanders transport department shows that truck violations spiked by 8% in 2023. The traffic fatality rate in this area stands at 3.1 per 100,000 residents, while heavy vehicle incidents account for 17% of total fatalities in comparison to the Flemish benchmark of 2.9 per 100,000 residents.
