The death of seven-year-old driver Sid Veijer from Staphorst has led to dismay in the motorsport world. Two weeks after an accident at a karting track where he was doing a free training session, as far as we know, not in an organized context but privately, Sid died on Sunday. Initially there were still positive reports about the treatment in the UMC+ hospital in Maastricht.
“You were the champion and will always remain the champion,” Faya writes on the Facebook page of her father, former motorcycle racer Mike Velthuijzen. Faya regularly appears next to Sid on the podium in photos. Sid’s cousin and Moto2 driver Collin Veijer (19) wrote on Instagram: “You will always be in my thoughts.”
The accident happened on the Sunday before Christmas, December 22, during training at an indoor karting track in Swalmen. The Limburg police speak of a fatal accident, without culpability. Contrary to what other media reported The Labor Inspectorate was not involved because there is no employment relationship between the karting track and the victim.
The NVWA, which tests companies and institutions for compliance with laws and regulations, also does not take action, as the accident did not occur at an event or in an amusement park.
Assen
Free training on indoor karting tracks is not promoted by the Royal Dutch Motorsport Association (KNMV), because these tracks do not comply with the association’s circuit regulations. “If an engine breaks down, there must be room to slide and that is not available at indoor karting tracks,” says KNMV spokesperson Bas Vis. “But just because something is not regulated does not necessarily mean that it is unsafe.” Free training on indoor karting tracks is the only way to rack up kilometers during the winter months.
The mini bike racing is not organized by the KNMV, apart from a number of free training sessions on the circuit in Assen, for children with a license. To achieve this and therefore be allowed to ‘mini-bicycle’ under the KNMV flag, a minimum age of seven years is required. The Dutch Minibike Championship (DMC) is the association that organizes competitions (outside the winter months) for the littlest ones, from the age of six. Such as the Dutch championship in Assen, which Sid Veijer won last autumn.
But just because something is not regulated does not necessarily mean that it is unsafe
The KNMV and DMC do work together. According to DMC chairman Jolle Wind, there are about twenty participants under the age of eight who ride minibikes. “That starts without a competition element, but as children have completed training hours, they can also compete in racing.” He speaks of “great sadness” in response to the death of Sid Veijer. “This leaves no one untouched.”
Intense
Henk Schotman guides children through their first steps in motorsport, also on minibikes. He works for race-kids.nl, a commercial party that guides children so that a talent can, for example, ride a minibike or motorcycle in the right class. The most accessible is the electric variant. More advanced models can reach speeds of over sixty kilometers per hour outdoors on a circuit. Indoors this is lower: a maximum of fifty per hour. Schotman: “Is that unsafe? No. Not if you know what to do.” Schotman calls the accident in Swalmen a “confluence of many factors”, but does not want to speculate based on what he has heard. “This is just very bad. For the family of course, for the sport and also for the owner of the karting track.”
Race-kids.nl, which is recommended by the motorsport association, does hold instruction days on indoor karting tracks, but there is no full-on racing there, says Schotman. He has been training for twenty years and has never experienced such a serious accident. “This goes right 999,999 times and wrong once. I think the sport is safe if you respect the fact that there is a risk.”
According to those involved, competitive racing at a young age is not exceptional. Max Verstappen also drove karting competitions at a very young age (six years old). Many talented people come into contact with motorized vehicles at a young age. According to DMC chairman Wind, nothing like this has ever happened in twenty years that his organization has been organizing minibike competitions. “Of course someone falls sometimes, but then you are talking about arm injuries or a broken wrist. Outside you have more space to slide, but inside that space is limited.” DMC therefore does not organize competitions on indoor karting tracks, he says.
Schotman does not think that the sport is more dangerous than, for example, cycling or skiing, where children also participate in sports at high speeds at a young age. “But I do think that as a sport, we should go back to basics: what do we do with a seven-year-old child?”
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