|
Ebb
Tuesday, January 27, 2026
For the second consecutive year, the number of Incident Management (IM) assignments declined in 2025. Recovery companies operating on the main road network were deployed just over 191,000 times. This is 7% lower than in 2024. In 2024, the number of IM assignments decreased by 2%. That decline could be fully attributed to a reduction in unnecessary call-outs. This was again a significant factor in 2025, but this time the contraction occurred across the board. Limited growth was only seen in the number of reports on main roads within the underlying road network. This downward trend follows a period of ten years in which the number of IM reports tripled. Annual growth averaged 12%. The 2025 figure is still 8% higher than that of 2022.
An electric Range Rover in flames on the A12 near Gouda on September 7, 2025 at 16:30 (IM159222; photo: road inspector William)
The number of unnecessary call-outs decreased to 13% of the total number of assignments. This was 16% in 2024 and as much as 21% in 2023 and in most preceding years. Compared with 2023, this sharp reduction resulted in savings of more than €2 million for road authorities. It was the result of improved coordination between the various reporting parties and stricter filtering to prevent duplicate reports. The role of the police as a reporting party declined further. In the future, the police will disappear entirely from the statistics. It has been agreed that the police will pass their reports to the traffic control centres of Rijkswaterstaat, which will forward them as electronic messages directly to the National Central Control Room ("LCM") of the Dutch Incident Management Foundation.
IM-opdrachten in 2025
| Type of assignment | 2025 | 2024 | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accident | 25.932 | 26.492 | -2% |
| Breakdown removal | 131.997 | 135.289 | -2% |
| Security | 4.946 | 8.538 | -42% |
| Unattended vehicle | 2.781 | 2.953 | -6% |
| Wasted trip | 25.710 | 31.816 | -19% |
| Main road network | 160.060 | 174.604 | -8% |
| Underlying road network | 31.306 | 30.484 | 3% |
| Police | 3.365 | 3.950 | -15% |
| RWS | 139.040 | 150.100 | -7% |
| ANWB/alarm centre | 48.961 | 51.038 | -4% |
| Total | 191.366 | 205.088 | -7% |
The number of security assignments was almost halved in 2025. This was the result of an effort by Rijkswaterstaat to have security activities carried out as much as possible by its own road inspectors. A substantial decline had already been recorded in 2024. The number of accidents decreased slightly in 2025 and, for the first time since 2023, fell below 26,000. The peak of over 27,000 in 2019 is now taking on a more structural character.
BCU loads the burnt-out wreck into the submersion container two hours later
Only on IM roads managed by authorities other than Rijkswaterstaat did the number of IM reports increase in 2025. This increase has been ongoing for several years, raising the share of these roads in the total number of reports from 12% in 2019 to 16% in the past year.
IM reports from 2010 to 2025