Leo at traffic noise screen fire - Dordrecht - Holland - 9 May 2001
Wednesday
9 May 2001 at midnight I was called that a traffic noise screen
between the highway A16 and Dordrecht was on fire.
Like most people that went there, I did not believe my ears.
When I
came there 50-100 metres of the noise screen was burned.
Everybody was looking at it with open mouths
because they thought the noise screen was inflammable.
Some
people put a moped on fire that was put against the screen.
Only in a few minutes the flames reached the top of the 9,5 m
high screen.
Because
the asphalt was very damaged by the melted plastics
Rijkswaterstaat first had to scrape off the
plastic and then put new asphalt on it.
The A16 in the direction of Rotterdam was closed till 7.00 AM.
Of course it caused over 10 kilometres of traffic congestion.
The damage of the 4 years old screen was estimated between 2 and 5 million (!) Euro.
Rijkswaterstaat
(the owner of the road and the screen) concluded that it was
too dangerous to keep the transpararent shields low on places
where people can come to it
and planned to change them for concrete everywhere.
On the
photo you can see me in transparant, because I walked when
Etienne took the photo.
On the left you can see my friend and cameraman Leo Stolk,
working for several national and regional TV stations.
I
informed the listeners live with my mobile phone in the news
bulletins
of 1.00 and 2.00 AM and made some reports about this national
news
on Radio Rijnmond. I went home at 10.00 AM.
© Made by Etienne Busink
