How did a fatal E17 crash leave a Brussels taxi driver seriously injured?
A 28-year-old motorcyclist died and a 64-year-old taxi driver from Saint-Gilles was seriously injured in a multi-vehicle crash on the E17 near Deerlijk early on Monday, 24 August.
In 30 seconds
- The crash happened at about 00:45 on 24 August on the E17 towards Kortrijk, just before the Deerlijk exit.
- A 28-year-old motorcyclist from Kuurne died after the initial collision with a taxi.
- The 64-year-old taxi driver from Saint-Gilles was hit by another car after getting out to help.
- A lorry was also struck; its driver and the passenger-car driver were reported uninjured.
A 28-year-old motorcyclist died and a 64-year-old taxi driver from the Brussels municipality of was seriously injured in a succession of collisions on the E17 near Deerlijk at about 00:45 on Monday, 24 August. According to BRUZZ, Focus-WTV and Het Nieuwsblad, the taxi driver was hit by a passing car after he left his vehicle to help the fallen rider.
The crash happened on the motorway towards , shortly before the Deerlijk exit in . The initial collision involved the taxi and the motorcycle, although investigators have not yet established why it occurred. The rider, a 28-year-old man from nearby Kuurne, was thrown onto the carriageway and could not be saved, the three Belgian news organisations reported.
The taxi driver, who lives in Saint-Gilles, then got out to offer assistance. A second car approaching in the darkness struck him, leaving him seriously injured and requiring hospital treatment. The condition described by the authorities and local media is serious, but no more detailed medical update was available on Monday.
A lorry driver also stopped to help, according to Focus-WTV. His vehicle was subsequently hit during the unfolding incident, but neither he nor the driver of the second car was reported injured. Four vehicles were ultimately involved: the motorcycle, taxi, passenger car and lorry. The sequence turned one collision into a complex and especially dangerous emergency scene.
That Brussels connection is personal rather than institutional: the injured man is from Saint-Gilles, one of the capital region’s 19 municipalities, while the accident occurred roughly 80 kilometres away in Flanders. No response from the Saint-Gilles municipal authorities, the Brussels regional government or representatives of the taxi sector had been reported by Monday. Brussels is therefore part of the human impact of the story, not the location of the crash and not an EU-policy setting.
The West Flanders public prosecutor’s office appointed a traffic expert to reconstruct the collisions, Focus-WTV and Het Nieuwsblad reported. Investigators must determine how the motorcycle and taxi first came into contact, where the vehicles and victims came to rest, and whether the approaching motorist had enough time and visibility to react. The available reporting does not establish speeding, distraction, alcohol use or criminal responsibility, and attributing any of those factors now would go beyond the evidence.
The E17 was closed for several hours between Waregem and Deerlijk in the direction of Kortrijk while emergency services worked and investigators documented the scene. The motorway had reopened by the morning rush hour, according to both local reports. The closure mattered beyond Deerlijk because the E17 is a major Belgian corridor linking Antwerp and Ghent with Kortrijk and the French border.
The taxi driver’s decision to approach an injured person reflects the immediate human impulse to help. Belgian police guidance, however, stresses that assistance on a motorway begins with preventing another collision. Local Police Ghent advises drivers to put on a reflective vest before leaving their vehicle, move passengers behind the safety barrier, warn approaching traffic and place a triangle at least 100 metres before the scene. First aid should be given only when it can be done safely, while serious injuries should be reported through 112.
The Flemish Roads and Traffic Agency takes a complementary operational view. Its F.A.S.T. system, run with the Federal Police, sends trained recovery and signalling vehicles to motorway incidents so that a protected zone can be established quickly. The agency says the system is intended to help victims, protect responders and other road users, prevent secondary crashes and limit congestion. Nothing reported so far establishes whether protective signalling was already present when the taxi driver was struck.
Where this is happening
View on map Saint-Gilles →The wider context is Belgium’s continuing road-safety challenge. The ’s 2026 statistical report records 57 motorcyclist deaths in Belgium in 2024, including 9% on motorways. The Commission frames such deaths through its Vision Zero objective, which seeks to eliminate road fatalities and serious injuries by 2050; national police guidance translates that ambition into practical roadside conduct.
What happens next is principally forensic rather than political. The traffic expert’s reconstruction and interviews with the surviving drivers should clarify the order of events and whether any offence contributed to the second impact. Until the prosecutor releases those findings, the confirmed picture remains narrow but grave: one man is dead, a Brussels taxi driver who went to help is seriously injured, and the cause of the chain collision remains under investigation.
What to do
If you encounter a motorway crash, first protect yourself from moving traffic: switch on hazard lights, make the scene visible where safe, call 112 and give the motorway, direction of travel and nearest exit or kilometre marker. Do not remain on an active lane or stand between vehicles. Move behind the safety barrier when safely possible and follow emergency-service instructions. Anyone who travelled towards Kortrijk overnight on 24 August may have encountered the closure, but the E17 reopened before that morning’s rush hour. The investigation may later clarify the precise sequence; no timetable for findings has been announced.
Impact
Regional — The direct impact falls on Kuurne and Deerlijk in West Flanders, where the rider lived and the crash occurred, and on Saint-Gilles in the Brussels-Capital Region, where the injured taxi driver lives. The E17 closure temporarily affected traffic towards Kortrijk.
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Voices & reactions
What the main actors are doing
Reported positions, summarised — not direct quotationsImmediate-help perspective — motorists and witnesses
The taxi and lorry drivers’ reported actions reflect the instinct and civic duty to assist an injured person immediately. Belgian police guidance recognises that witnesses should assess casualties, call 112 and provide first aid when it is safe to do so.
Scene-protection perspective — Belgian police and road managers
Local Police Ghent and the Flemish Roads and Traffic Agency put prevention of a secondary collision first: wear a reflective vest, warn approaching drivers, move people behind the barrier and establish protected signalling before help is attempted in live motorway traffic.
Systemic perspective — European Commission
The European Commission frames individual crashes within Vision Zero, arguing that every road death is unacceptable and that safer roads, vehicles, behaviour and post-crash response must work together. This complements the immediate Belgian investigation rather than assigning blame in this case.
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This story was assembled from verified evidence, with its sources and reasoning recorded as it was written.