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| Call for traffic warnings in English |
1/24/2007 |
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24 January 2007
AMSTERDAM – Warnings aimed at drivers should be broadcast in languages other than Dutch as well, it was argued on Wednesday.
Insurance company TVM, which insures some 40 percent of the transport in the Netherlands, is urging multilingual warnings after the many accidents involving freight lorries during the severe storm last week.
TVM reports that one third of the accident claims it received involving lorries last week involved a foreign driver.
Professional drivers could be warned of problems like the storm last week in their own language on the information boards above and along the motorways and via the radio.
"The increasing internationalisation of road transport means that a warning in Dutch alone just isn’t enough," said a spokesperson for TVM.
He thinks English would be the first alternative language in which to issue the warnings. Polish might also be a good idea since so many drivers from Poland are active in road transport in the Netherlands.
Other organisations involved in transport, including TLN and EVO, support the call from TVM. A total of 172 lorries were involved in accidents during the storm on Thursday 18 January, according to figures from the National Police Corp.
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