The municipality of Amstelveen will investigate where there are stands within the municipality, and what their condition is. “Amstelveen is bigger than this sports field,” said alderman Herbert Raat this afternoon on the grounds of baseball and softball club De Vliegende Hollander, where six students were injured yesterday when a stand collapsed.
Raat has asked AmstelveenSport to make an inventory of where similar stands are located in the municipality. “We want to know whether there are similar stands in Amstelveen, and if so, what the condition is.”
The grandstand that collapsed just before nine o’clock yesterday with dozens of first graders on it, is a construction of wooden planks held together by steel uprights. The colossus is several meters wide and several layers high.
There is at least one similar stand on the DVH site, although it appears to be sturdier than the one that collapsed yesterday. Yesterday, the municipality decided that other stands on the site, including the one below, may not be used.
Clubs are responsible for the stands and their maintenance, Raat emphasizes. He believes that the stands should be inspected ‘much more critically’. “Because of course it always goes well, until it doesn’t go well. This one [tribune, red] was fortunately not too high, but you see what is left of it: nothing at all. If a child had become trapped, we would have had a very different situation.”
AmstelveenSport will ask associations on behalf of the municipality to inspect their own equipment and, if necessary, to sound the alarm. He also suggests that the municipality should visit associations once every few years for a safety inspection. “To see if everything is still in order.”
Last service three years ago
President Bruce Verweij of De Vliegende Hollander told NH Nieuws yesterday that the stands are checked annually and that maintenance is carried out if necessary. The last maintenance dates from three years ago, a AAN! reporter heard this afternoon on the DVH site.
Two of the six victims had to be taken to hospital for treatment. The others mainly suffered abrasions. Because there were dozens of children in the stands at the time of the collapse, a gym teacher concluded yesterday that it ‘could have turned out much worse’. In a press release, Raat said that ‘the children, the parents and the teachers are very frightened’.
The DVH site has since been found safe, which has prompted the management of the Keizer Karel College to continue the gym classes on the site.