This New Year, a total of seven people ended up in the emergency department in Drenthe as a result of an accident with fireworks. That is half compared to the last old and new before the corona pandemic, according to figures from VeiligNL. Two of the seven victims are under the age of 12.
In 2019-2020, emergency room physicians had to help fourteen victims. During the two corona years, when fireworks were banned, three (2020-2021) and five (2021-2022) people had to go to the emergency room.
Across the Netherlands, ER doctors saw 389 injured by fireworks during the turn of the year. That is almost the same as the year before corona (385). At GP posts this was over 850 last New Year’s Eve. It is not clear from the figures how many victims ended up at GP posts in Drenthe.
The number of victims throughout the Netherlands was 62 percent higher this year than during the previous turn of the year, when, just like the year before, a national fireworks ban was in effect. Most people had to be treated for burns and eye injuries. SafetyNL estimates the direct medical costs and absenteeism costs at 3.9 million euros. Last year it was 2.6 million euros.
This year, almost a fifth of victims nationwide were under the age of 12, also comparable to 2019-2020. Furthermore, mainly boys aged 12 to 15 and men aged 20 to 29 were victims of fireworks.
Slightly less than half of the children who needed emergency care after an accident with fireworks this New Year had lit the fireworks themselves. “Very young children are often injured because they grab the fireworks held by parents in an unguarded moment,” said Safety NL. The knowledge center collected information from the Dutch Association of Accident and Emergency Physicians, InEen (the association of, among others, out-of-hours GP services) and the Dutch Association for Trauma Surgery.