A moment of inattention with major consequences: when the now 38-year-old Patrick Z. from Den Helder turns his van around on the Walvisvaardersweg in Den Helder last year, a motorcyclist appears to be driving behind him. The man crashes into the side of the bus. The victim (36) suffered a partial spinal cord injury as a result of the accident. Today, both suspect and victim have difficulty holding back their tears in front of the judge.
Seated in an electric wheelchair, the victim drives into the courtroom this morning. “My life completely changed on February 1, 2022,” his lawyer reads from his victim statement. He is too emotional to read the statement himself. “It will never be the same again, not even for my family. But if I hadn’t had my family and relatives, I wouldn’t be here. Without them I would have preferred my eyes to be closed forever.”
The 38-year-old suspect listens to the story while sobbing. With shaking hands, his head bowed and occasionally swallowing his tears, he tells what happened. “I never saw the motorcyclist. If I had seen him, I would never have made that maneuver.”
Bus return
Z. indicates that he was on his way to the De Golfstroom residential care center with a colleague for work. He drove from the Schootenweg to the right onto the Walvisvaardersweg and wanted to park his van on the other side of the road at a loading and unloading place. By turning around on the road, he was immediately facing the right direction. He said he looked in all directions, turned on his indicator and turned. But he overlooked a motorbike riding behind him and he could no longer avoid the bus. It collided with the side of the bus.
During the hearing, images of the accident made by a surveillance camera from a distance are shown. You can see how the van turns, turns on its turn signal and wants to turn onto the road, after which a motorcyclist comes into view who drives straight into the side of the bus. The suspect indicates that he had not been able to view the images before because it was too much for him emotionally. Even now he is at a loss for words.
“It is difficult to explain to a young boy full of zest for life that his daddy can no longer do anything”
The victim was taken to hospital by air ambulance. He spent weeks in intensive care and had to recuperate for almost a year. “We have now moved to an adapted home,” the victim said in his statement. Before the accident he worked in the Royal Navy, but since that date he has no longer been able to work. “I receive care at home every day, also from my wife. This is not how I imagined my and our life.”
The man has two children. “Our eldest is having a hard time, he often says that daddy was almost a star. That breaks my heart. It is difficult to explain to a young boy full of zest for life that his daddy can no longer do anything. During the accident my wife was pregnant with our youngest. She will never know her father other than in a wheelchair.”
Blind spot
The police have concluded that the driver of the van must not have looked properly. All other scenarios (drinking behind the wheel, texting or calling on the road or defects in the vehicle) are not an issue. Z. maintains that he did look, but simply did not see the motorcyclist. An oncoming driver stated that she saw the motorcyclist swaying and was therefore possibly in the driver’s blind spot. The suspect’s lawyer also sees this as a possibility: “Looking and seeing are not the same. It turns out that an accident is just around the corner.”
If it is up to the public prosecutor, the driver of the bus is indeed to blame for the accident. “He should have simply stopped before turning on the road.” Given the seriousness of the accident, she demands a community service of 120 hours (or 60 days in prison if the community service is not properly performed) and an unconditional driving ban of six months.
The judge will make a ruling in two weeks.
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