On Wednesday afternoon, a young family experienced the fright of their lives in Leuven when the bridge across the Vaartkom that they were driving on suddenly opened to let a ship pass through.
A couple and their 1.5-year-old child were driving over the Marie Thumas Bridge in Leuven on Wednesday 27 October when it suddenly opened. The family had nowhere to go and the car slid backwards and eventually landed upside down on the closed barrier.
"We are investigating how this could have happened," Carolien Peelaerts of the public Flemish Waterway company said on local radio on Thursday morning.
Leuven pic.twitter.com/7WNaUeh3m6
— Walid (@walaor14) October 27, 2021
The three occupants were trapped in the car and had to be freed by the fire brigade. They were then taken to the Gasthuisberg hospital in Leuven.
"According to the latest information, their injuries are not very severe," Commissioner Marc Vranckx told Het Nieuwsblad.
How the accident could have happened and whether the driver ignored the barriers or if there was a technical fault is not yet known.
"We are looking at the camera footage and are sending experts on-site to investigate this," said Peelaerts, adding that the bridge will remain closed to cars, pedestrians and cyclists as long as the investigation is ongoing.
