Delta rescues

Monday, 1 February 2021
On the morning of 1 February icy roads caused more than 150 accidents on IM roads. More than a quarter of the collisions occurred on the A6 and the N50 in Flevoland. Delta Berging, of Lelystad and Emmeloord, was called out 38 times between 5.30 and 10.00 a.m. to clear up the havoc that had been wreaked on these roads. That made the company the busiest IM recovery operator of the day in one fell swoop.

Delta Berging on the Ramspolbrug at Kampen, on 1 February 2021

The first incidents happened between 4.30 and 5.30 a.m., to the west of Amsterdam and around Arnhem. There were 30 accidents there in the space of 60 minutes. In the hours that followed, the picture worsened considerably elsewhere in Noord-Holland, Flevoland and the Kop van Overijssel. In a fifty-kilometre wide strip between Haarlem and Zwolle, there were 74 accidents between 5.30 and 7.30 a.m. The pandemonium came to a head between 7.30 and 10.00 a.m. in the Flevopolders.

The A8 at Amsterdam on 1 February 2021, at 5.45 a.m. (Photo credit: Hoogwout Berging)

There was also plenty damage on the A28, north of Zwolle. In that case it was Wolves Autoberging, of Zwolle, and 24 Seven Berging Hooikammer, of Staphorst, that came to the rescue. Wolves had to leap into action on 16 occasions, Hooikammer 14. After 10.00 a.m. there was no more slipping and sliding on the roads. Even so, the early hours of 1 February were enough to make it a historic day. By 5.30 p.m. Stichting IMN's National Central Reporting Point (LCM) had received 185 reports of accidents. Since 2010 there have been just six incidences of there being more than 190 collisions reported in a single day.