For nine hours, Stint producers Edwin Renzen and Peter Noorlander listened to the arguments of two public prosecutors on Monday in the Den Bosch court. Renzen busily wrote along. He knew about the defects in the Stint than he wanted to admit, according to the Public Prosecution Service. Technical man Noorlander kept his hands folded. A bag of licorice on the table. The Stint had “outgrown Noorlander,” the justice said. Behind the men, the relatives of the Stint accident in Oss, in which four children died in 2018, listened. A fifth child and the driver were seriously injured.
In the evening, Renzen and Noorlander heard that the Public Prosecution Service is demanding unconditional prison sentences of 5 years and 4 months for both of them. Their companies, Stinten Holding BV and Stinten BV, were charged with fines of 225,000 and 135,000 euros.
The Public Prosecution Service painted a picture of two entrepreneurs who knew about the problems with their product, but “often did nothing” with them
The list of defects that the Public Prosecution Service listed seemed endless. Batteries that exploded, the lack of an emergency button, insufficient regard to the safety regulations of the European Machinery Directive, the ‘return spring’ that often broke. The examples were interspersed with reports that daycare centers made to Stint entrepreneurs. For example, an institution reported an exploded battery a day before the accident in Oss. “Then it had to be done [de begeleider] pushing the Stint over the track, where she received help from two women who brought the children over the track.”
Based on expert reports, as well as apps and tapped telephone conversations from the manufacturers, the Public Prosecution Service painted a picture of two entrepreneurs who knew about the problems with their product, but who, according to the justice department, “often did nothing” about them. Due to all the defects and the fact that children were transported, the Public Prosecution Service already described the Stint as “.
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‘Band-aids’
The reason for the research was an accident with a Stint on September 20, 2018 in Oss. The electric handcart could no longer brake and ended up at a railway crossing, where it was hit by a train. Seven years after the accident, the case is now going to trial. Last week, the suspects answered questions and relatives and victims were given the floor.
The Stint “was no good” and “every harmful thing is related to other harmful things,” the Public Prosecution Service concluded. The company did not have a “good overall picture” of all the problems. There was often talk of “sticking a band-aid”.
The company received more than 2,700 reports. “On average 41 per week,” the Public Prosecution Service said.
A few weeks after the accident, Renzen and Noorlander had brake tests carried out by the German testing agency TÜV. In October 2018, it turned out that the Stint under investigation did not achieve the legally required braking deceleration. The entrepreneurs then allegedly adjusted the software of the handcart, after which a new test was carried out.
The Public Prosecution Service calls this “malicious manipulation” of the research results. “This says a lot about the manipulative and unreliable character of the suspects.” An intermediary who had to arrange the test was referred to by Renzen by email as “a magician” who “can help us through it”.
Disc brakes
The justice department called the fact that the Stint that crashed did not have a brake switch “an unforgivable mistake.” Such a switch prevents the engine from continuing to run when the driver uses the brake. The prosecutor recalled a tapped telephone conversation in which Renzen admitted that the solution was simple: “Put on hydraulic disc brakes and bam, you stand still.”
According to several witnesses cited by the Public Prosecution Service, the driver of the Stint in Oss braked with all his force with the squeeze brake. They saw her “fighting hand and foot with the Stint”, after she had arrived “calmly”.
After Renzen and Noorlander heard the sentence, they left the room in silence
She did everything she could to prevent the accident, the Public Prosecution Service emphasized. Justice argued a causal link between the defects of the Stint and the fatal accident.
After Renzen and Noorlander heard the sentence, they left the room in silence. At the exit, someone sitting in the public gallery put an arm around Renzen.
The lawyers of the suspects will speak on Tuesday.
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Fatal accident with Stint has ‘left deep marks on the relatives’. After years, the criminal case has finally started
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