A serious highway collision involving a passenger coach and a delivery van in the eastern Netherlands has left 16 people injured, with eight of those wounded sustaining critical harm, regional law enforcement has confirmed. The incident, which unfolded shortly before 4:30 a.m. local time on Monday along the A28 motorway near the town of Wezep, approximately 60 kilometers east of Amsterdam, has shut down the major route in both directions indefinitely as investigations get underway.
According to Gelderland region police, all injured parties were transported to local medical facilities for urgent care soon after the crash. The injured group includes the driver of the delivery van, who is among the eight people counted as seriously hurt, while the remaining eight casualties have only minor injuries. As of the latest updates, authorities have not confirmed how many of the injured are students traveling on the coach.
The coach was carrying more than 50 17-to-18-year-old German students and four adult teachers from a secondary school in the northern German town of Schönberg, the institution confirmed in an official statement posted to its website. The group was en route to Paris when the accident occurred, with the students split across two separate 12th-grade classes for the educational trip.
Witness and official accounts from both Dutch and German media outline the sequence of the crash: after the coach collided head-on with the delivery van, it careened through a roadside guardrail before overturning onto its side. Officials have not yet announced any potential causes of the collision, with a full investigation currently in progress.
In a reassuring update, the German school involved confirmed that there are no reports of life-threatening injuries among any of those involved, and all affected individuals are already receiving extensive, specialized medical attention at area hospitals.