Ajaxtalk

The latest figures: 23 injured, of whom 12 badly wounded, and 2 deaths confirmed...

K.

Kowalczyk schreef:My God...

It's Queens Day in The Netherlands, but the whole thing has just been called off. The royal family were visiting Apeldoorn, but all of a sudden a black car raced straight through the crowd (hitting people left and right) and crashed into a monument. very clearly not an accident: it had raced through two 'rings' of fences and security personnel. The coach with the royal family was just driving by. They saw it happen right in front of them. The driver must have 'aimed' for them.

Wounded people in the street. Two confirmed dead; local news network claims there are four fatalities.

There are several videos and pictures on http://www.rtlnieuws.nl/ (some of them shocking).

This should have been a party. What a sad day.

K.

Awful - there are some really bad people on this planet. I really don't understand what motivates them to do such things to totally innocent people.

Horrible and insane, it leaves one speechless.

I was actually watching this live on BVN. Terrible scenes. Seeing people get knocked around like that. I have heard one report say 4 dead, but obviously its still confusion.

The guy on the bike near the monument will be counting his lucky stars he was paying attention. Half a second later and he would no longer be with us.

My thoughts goes to those effected. What a sad, sad day.

I feel like the world has fundamentally changed before our eyes over the past ten years. But maybe it's always been this way and I just couldn't see it. So totally sad and pointless.

DanK schreef:I have heard one report say 4 dead.

When I first posted two deaths were confirmed, but at that point regional news network Omroep Gelderland were already claiming that there were four. That number was soon confirmed. The official number of fatalities was four (two men, two women) until a few minutes ago. A fifth person just died at the hospital and according to unconfirmed reports this fifth victim is the driver of the vehicle. Authorities do not wish to confirm that (yet).

NOS (the Dutch BBC, kind of) do report that the driver has been declared brain-dead and that the doctors have stopped his treatment.

Thirteen are still at hospitals: ten adults (six men, four women) and three children (aged 16, 15 and 9). Out of those thirteen, five are in critical condition (skull fractures and brain damage, sometimes permanent). The others will be okay (mostly 'ordinary' bone fractures). Among the badly wounded is one member of the Military Police. Among the 'lightly' wounded is one police officer.

K.

This is terrible, just seen it on the News and looked on here immediately afterwards.

Very sad and pointless, no justification at all for this sort of thing of course and whatever the "justification" was, as usual it's ordinary working people enjoying a public holiday in the sun who suffer.

A guy I work with has gone out for Queens day (his partner is Dutch) but he's in Amsterdam.

Completely shocking and pointless.

Just saw some footage and read about this, yeah it's horrible and completely pointless.

For what it's worth, this is what I just read about the driver (not sure how accurate):

It seems to be a case of a "mad father" going bad. This time, the guy didn't climb a building in a Spiderman suit.

He lost his house and kids after divorce, rented, lost his job, and was about to be evicted tomorrow. He picked the queen as a target because the court rulings start with the line "In the name of the Queen..."

There is no way his actions can be justified especially since he killed at least 4 people who are not even his target. Apparently they meant nothing to him too. But it does worry me that the "law" handles divorces so unfair it turns a guy with no record whatsoever into a madman.

Once again we are reminded that there is no aspect or corner of this world that cannot be touched by senseless violence.

Unfair divorce or not, I cannot fathom what would cause someone to show such a total disregard for human life, especially children.

Like everyone else, I send my thoughts and prayers to the families affected, and indeed to the whole nation.

gordonvandekamp schreef:Just saw some footage and read about this, yeah it's horrible and completely pointless.

For what it's worth, this is what I just read about the driver (not sure how accurate):

It seems to be a case of a "mad father" going bad. This time, the guy didn't climb a building in a Spiderman suit.

He lost his house and kids after divorce, rented, lost his job, and was about to be evicted tomorrow. He picked the queen as a target because the court rulings start with the line "In the name of the Queen..."

There is no way his actions can be justified especially since he killed at least 4 people who are not even his target. Apparently they meant nothing to him too. But it does worry me that the "law" handles divorces so unfair it turns a guy with no record whatsoever into a madman.

Yes, that seems to be the story of this character. But was that why he did this...? He'll never be able to tell us.

By the way: the fifth fatality was not the killer, but NOS still claim that he has been declared braindead, which would make him fatality number six.

K.

Kowalczyk schreef:By the way: the fifth fatality was not the killer, but NOS still claim that he has been declared braindead, which would make him fatality number six.

And so it happened... He died at 2:58 AM. Death toll is now six, the killer included.

This tragedy marks the end of an era.

Whether you liked the partying or not (the massive orange party in Amsterdam is not typical for Queen's Day as a whole), Queen's Day in Holland was unique, typical for the small, village-like country that The Netherlands is (or perhaps: was). The royals would always visit a small town and it was always a very friendly, relaxed event. You could literally touch them, shake the Queen's hand and wish her happy birthday, the princes would chat to the people and participate in all the activities the community had organized for them. It was always a bit snug and 'provincial' (like Holland itself, really), but pretty unique for an open, western society: the distance between the royal family and the people was uniquely small on Queen's Day. The police would keep an eye on things - and that would be enough.

Those days are now over. Queen's Day will change like international air traffic after 9/11.

K.

A sad day for the Dutch and the innocent victims.

A seventh person (a man) has just died at the hospital. It is the member of the Military Police I was reporting about earlier.

One more person (a woman) is in critical condition now. The ones in 'critical condition', in most cases, sustained skull fractures and brain damage as they landed on their heads.

Two males and two females were instantly killed or died at the scene of the incident. Three (including the killer) have now died at hospitals (the wounded were brought to six different hospitals in the area).

K.

Unbelievable. The scary thing is that the car had plowed through so many bystanders that it was already practically disabled by the time it got to the parade route. Shocking.

One thing bugs me, though. Once the car has crashed into the monument, you can see the parade bus just plowing along at a walking pace. That's a huge mistake. The minute the driver saw what happened, the bus should have picked up speed and gotten the hell away from there. What if there was a second vehicle that came in after the first had distracted everyone?

I've had to take tactical driving classes for work, and the first thing you learn is that, once something untoward happens, you mash the gas pedal and get away from the scene. It's the thing that reduces your chances of being assassinated the most.

Still, what a horrible thing.

aveslacker schreef:One thing bugs me, though. Once the car has crashed into the monument, you can see the parade bus just plowing along at a walking pace. That's a huge mistake. The minute the driver saw what happened, the bus should have picked up speed and gotten the hell away from there. What if there was a second vehicle that came in after the first had distracted everyone?

Yeah. Or what if the car had a big fat bomb on board?

As terrible as it was: it could have been even worse...

K.

Have they figured out what the driver's motivation was? I presume he was a lone nut-job.

Kowalczyk schreef: Yeah. Or what if the car had a big fat bomb on board?

As terrible as it was: it could have been even worse...

K.

I was thinking that while watching...he could have easily strapped something to that car. It was a relief to see the sniffer dogs there later on. It was also lucky (can you call it that?), he rammed into the monument and not ploughed on past it and directly into the crowd.

Queens Day is definitely changed forever in Holland.

For you information, we can add another casualty to the list of'Queens Day victims... A 46 year-old woman died at the hospital yesterday evening. Total death toll is now eight, the killer included.

K.

Thought we might want to remind ourselves what one of these looks like

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/bus ... 042024.stm

Our boys are so sweet... The cutest little brothers in the world... You know what? Let's make a video of and send it to grandpa and grandma... The way our boys can play together, it's so sweet...

http://www.dumpert.nl/mediabase/496921/ ... iefde.html

K.

Kowalczyk schreef:Our boys are so sweet... The cutest little brothers in the world... You know what? Let's make a video of and send it to grandpa and grandma... The way our boys can play together, it's so sweet...

http://www.dumpert.nl/mediabase/496921/ ... iefde.html

K.

That kid will make a fine Feyenoord defender some day...

As if we didn't know alreasdy it's a very small world.

I'm away all week in Brighton for my Union Conference, got talking to one of the other delagates who not only turned out to be another Ajacied but even posts on here (usually in the Dutch zone - his Dutch must be better than mine!) and even knows some of the same guys that I've met from the site.

Ajax talk certainly livened up a boring lunchtime anyway, don't often meet Ajax fans over here.....

Sitting bored in Internet Cafe right now, anyone else got any Ajax fans in strange places stories to liven up the evening?

SE6Ajacied schreef:Sitting bored in Internet Cafe right now, anyone else got any Ajax fans in strange places stories to liven up the evening?

Not exactly, but I saw a guy wearing a Feyenoord shirt at Bay to Breakers on Sunday. I called him a "cockerlokken" (sp?) but he apparently thought I was a crazy person, or worse... Dutch. He ignored me.

Bummer. I was drunk and ready for a dust-up.

ajaxusa schreef:I saw a guy wearing a Feyenoord shirt at Bay to Breakers on Sunday. I called him a "cockerlokken" (sp?) but he apparently thought I was a crazy person, or worse... Dutch. He ignored me.

Bummer. I was drunk and ready for a dust-up.

The Bay to Breakers! Definitely brings back fond memories of my old hometown. Drunk is the only way you'd get me to run the thing, though.

SE6Ajacied schreef:
Sitting bored in Internet Cafe right now, anyone else got any Ajax fans in strange places stories to liven up the evening?

Walking through a shopping centre in an outer suburb in Victoria a few years back, Ajax shirt on. Some random guy walked up to me, poked the crest and yelled Hup Ajax!!!

Did bring a smile to my face I must admit.