What started as a pleasant Friday evening in November last year ended in a large drama in Rijsbergen. The brothers Roy (22) and Sjoerd (24) registered to participate in their dream competition, the annual tractor pull in the village. But that dream has never become reality. The brothers were dropped off at home by the 28-year-old Ron, who with twice the permitted amount of alcohol in his blood and caused a fatal traffic accident at high speed. Roy was killed. “Why did you have to press the accelerator pedal so hard?”, His father wonders on Friday.
Exactly nine months after the fatal accident, the relatives of 22-year-old Roy are broken in court on Friday afternoon. “I have not only lost my brother, but also my best friend,” says Sjoerd in his right to speak. He was seriously injured in the accident and broke his breastbone, among other things.
The brothers had registered that evening to participate in the Trekkertrek in their village. It was their big dream to participate in the competition together. After registration, the boys drank some beers and chatted with their fellow villagers. The same applies to the 28-year-old Ron, who later wants to drop his friends at home.
Ron had three to four beers, but did not crawl right behind the wheel. He let a friend drive his Volkswagen Golf and that went a little harder than allowed, the friends said later. “That can be even harder,” said Ron when his friend drove. Once he had dropped his friend at home, Ron drove on to bring the brothers home.
At a speed of 140 kilometers per hour, where 60 kilometers per hour was allowed, he drove over the Schriekenweg in Rijsbergen when things went wrong. The car hit three trees and came to a halt on the roadside. The engine block ended up at Buren in the garden and the street was littered with parts. Roy died in the accident. Ron and Sjoerd were seriously injured and had to go to the hospital.
“Our life has changed in one fell swoop.”
Roy’s father wonders what Ron inspired to press the accelerator pedal so hard. “What every parent is afraid of has become reality for our reality. Our life has changed a blow,” says the father heavily emotionally. Roy only lived with his girlfriend for six days, next to his parents.
His mother looks out the window every morning and sees the house, the shutters of which are never opened by Roy again. “I happened to have put his school photos in order that evening to give him for the new house. I didn’t know then I had to use them for his funeral a few days later,” says the mother.
The relatives are heavily counting on the Ron that he drove so fast and that he crawled behind the wheel with alcohol, something for which he has previously been convicted by the judge. They therefore hope that Ron will have a lifelong driving.
“Shouldn’t have done so tough.”
Ron reacts very emotionally to the heartbreaking argument of the relatives and often expresses his regret. He should have ‘not so tough’ by pressing the accelerator pedal so hard and he should not have been driving up with too many beers.
The 22-year-old Roy was in the middle of life and was a real club man. The fatal accident therefore still has a major impact on the community in Rijsbergen.
According to the public prosecutor, it is clear and Ron has driven recklessly at too high a speed and under the influence of alcohol. With 0.5 promille alcohol in the blood you can drive, but at Ron that was the evening of the accident 1.18 Promille. The OM therefore demands a prison sentence of three and a half years and a five -year driving cancellation with deduction of the time that Ron lost his driving license after the accident.
Ron’s lawyer hopes that the judge will give him a lower punishment because he still has physical and mental consequences of the fatal accident, among other things because he broke his back in the accident. The judge will rule in the case in two weeks.