German school bus overturns on Dutch A28 motorway near Wezep, leaving eight hospitalized

Early morning collision near Wezep

A touring coach carrying German high school students collided with a delivery van on the A28 motorway near the town of Wezep in Gelderland province during the early hours of Monday. Emergency dispatchers received the first emergency call at 04:15, with authorities timing the crash to around 04:20. According to the regional safety agency Veiligheidsregio Noord- en Oost-Gelderland, the coach was driving directly behind the delivery van before striking the rear of the smaller vehicle. The collision forced the bus to swerve sharply across the roadway, break through the central guardrail, and overturn onto its side across the opposite carriageway and adjacent green strip. The delivery van, which carried only its driver, was torn completely into two pieces from the force of the impact.

Emergency response and hospitalizations

A large deployment of emergency services, including regional police, multiple ambulance units, and fire crews, converged on the crash site situated roughly 100 kilometres east of Amsterdam near Zwolle. Firefighters used specialized equipment to extract several trapped teenagers through the roof of the overturned coach. Eight people, including the driver of the delivery van and several German teenagers, suffered injuries requiring emergency admission to the Isala hospital in Zwolle. Local police noted that several of the hospitalized victims sustained severe injuries, though none were reported as life-threatening. Medical personnel also treated additional passengers at the roadside for light injuries, primarily lacerations caused by flying shards of shattered window glass, bringing the total count of injured individuals to between 11 and 20.

School excursion from Schleswig-Holstein

The coach, which was travelling under Austrian registration plates, carried two 12th-grade classes comprising 54 high school students and their accompanying teachers from the Gemeinschaftsschule Probstei in Schönberg, located in the Plön district of Schleswig-Holstein. The group had departed northern Germany on an overnight school trip with Paris as their final destination. School administration officials confirmed that all students involved were receiving medical assessments and that families in Germany were being contacted directly by staff. The local fire department and municipal authorities established an on-site reception and welfare centre near Wezep to provide shelter and psychological support for the uninjured students while emergency personnel processed the scene.

Motorway closures and detour routes

The collision prompted police and transportation authorities to shut down the A28 motorway in both directions through Oldebroek municipality near the Wezep junction. Dutch infrastructure agency Rijkswaterstaat announced that collision analysis, debris removal, and road surface repairs would keep the transport corridor closed until at least the evening peak traffic period. Traffic agencies directed Zwolle-bound drivers to divert from the Hoevelaken junction onto the A1 and A50 motorways. Motorists heading in the opposite direction from Zwolle toward Amersfoort were instructed to leave the A28 at the Hattemerbroek interchange and follow the A50 and A1 motorways to bypass the closure.