Fewer fines were handed out last year for violations on the water. Enforcers issued almost 3,800 fines in 2021, about 20 percent less than a year earlier. However, the number of fines was still higher than in the years before corona. This is apparent from an analysis by ANP/LocalFocus based on figures from the Central Judicial Collection Agency (CJIB).
The figures include all fines handed out to offenders on the water. In 2020, the first corona year, more than 4800 thousand fines were handed out. In the years before corona, that number was significantly lower.
A total of €730,000 in fines was collected. Four out of ten fines were handed out to speeding offenders. A relatively large number of fines have also been handed out for the lack of a dead man’s button, for sailing with a boat with too few life jackets and for sailing without a license.
Fewer fines were issued on the water almost everywhere in the Netherlands than in 2020. Only in Overijssel (an increase of 4 percent) did the number of caught offenders rise slightly. In the provinces of Groningen and Utrecht, the number of fines was halved.
At municipal level, Amsterdam had the most fines: 467. Many fines were also handed out in the Steenwijkerland municipality, which includes Giethoorn. In addition, Wijdemeren, which contains the Loosdrechtse Plassen, and the water-rich Súdwest-Fryslân also had many fines.
It is not possible to say with certainty to what extent the increase in the number of fines in the past two years is caused by the corona pandemic. According to Jeroen van den Heuvel, head of the water sports department of the trade association HISWA-RECRON, many more people took to the water during the corona crisis. “Both the use of existing vessels and the purchase of new vessels has increased enormously,” says Van den Heuvel. “In our experience, this was on the one hand because people decided to go on holiday in the Netherlands during corona, and because you can comply with the corona measures on a boat.”
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