Ruben Nicolai was the victim of a potentially fatal car accident in 2011 during the filming of De Worste Chauffeur. The most explicit images have never been made public.
It was the shock of Ruben Nicolai’s life: in 2011 he was hit hard by one of the participants of De Worste Chauffeur van Nederland. The images were broadcast on television, see below, but without the most explicit shots. The presenter did not want that in the public eye.
Holy fuck
Ruben still looks back on it with difficulty. “Yes, it took a year to get over that. A few weeks after the collision, I went to the production house to see the assembly. They thought it was important that I gave my approval, which was very neat”, he says in Veronica Superguide.
The most explicit images have not been broadcast. “I didn’t want videos on YouTube where the kids would think: holy fuck, that’s where my father is flying through the air.”
Seven points of view
In the end, Ruben couldn’t bear to watch the editing. “I took a deep breath and said I was ready, but as soon as I heard the sound of that car accelerating, I said, stop. I couldn’t handle it. They mounted it with good taste.”
In other words: without the most explicit images. “It was filmed from seven camera angles, so they could have captured it a lot better than they did in the end.”
How processed?
It was a trauma for Ruben. How did he handle that? “I made a theater performance in which I showed the fragment from that broadcast every evening. That had a therapeutic effect. Now I can see it just fine.”
“Recently I was drinking a beer at my favorite restaurant in Amsterdam when a young guy came up to me: hey, you’re from that hit! He told me that he often watches that video with friends before going out and that they laugh out loud. (…) That was also refreshing, so without compassion. haha.”
Fragment
The fragment in question: