Village of crashed Dutch skier (14) in deep mourning: ‘Numbed by the shock and loss’ | Domestic

The football club and the tennis club from Zevenhoven, of which the teenager was a member, are having a difficult time. With the Christmas holidays in full swing, the fields and courts are deserted this Wednesday afternoon. These were the places where the 14-year-old Zevenhove resident loved to visit.

Chairman of the football club SV Zevenhoven René van Zon finds it terrible what happened, he says. “The entire association is completely numb from the shock and loss. Just like at the tennis club LTV Zevenhoven, of which he was also a member. Everyone is quite affected. We can’t figure it out. These people are in the middle of the village. It’s a small village, so it has a big impact. My legs have been shaking all morning.”

Antoinette Ingwersen, deputy mayor of the municipality of Nieuwkoop, to which Zevenhoven belongs, also responded to the message. “This is a tragedy, we deeply sympathize with the family of the deceased. Especially in a small village like Zevenhoven, something like this hits hard. If we receive a request for help from the family, we will see how we can help.”

Many villagers are reluctant when asked about the tragedy on the street on Wednesday. There is a lot of talking among each other and everyone hears something. “The family is known in the village,” says the voice from behind the counter of the bakery in the heart of Zevenhoven. There is also a preference for silence at the local shop next door. According to many, talking is up to the family, but logically they are not in the country at the moment.

According to the Austrian police, things went wrong on Tuesday around 1.50 pm in the Hochoetz ski area, fifty kilometers west of Innsbruck. The 14-year-old boy is said to have fallen off the red slope for an as yet unclear reason and fell approximately 25 meters.

A ski lift operator and another skier resuscitated him, after which an emergency medical helicopter also landed, media in the Alpine country write. But the help was no longer of any use. When asked, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that they had not yet received a consular request for assistance after the accident.

There is an annual tractor parade in the village on Wednesday evening, but the organization reported on Facebook that the parade route has been changed. The ride with 75 illuminated tractors that comes through the village because of the holidays, out of respect for the victim’s family, does not drive over the Schoolstraat and the Dobbe in neighboring Noordeinde, nor over the exit at Vlijtlaan in Zevenhoven.

It is not the first time that the village has been shocked by a somewhat similar accident. In the summer of 2016, a 50-year-old resident died from his injuries after a winter skiing accident. He was also a member of the local football club.