A happy day gone wrong.

[rodneyscat]

My country is in shock over something that in the grand scheme of things isn't that big a deal, but it is to most of us, including me. This post is getting longer and longer though every time I edit it, so I'll put this behind a cut now.

It's queens day here today, which is a big deal in The Netherlands, with the queen and her family joining the festivities, everyone dressed in orange one way or another, flea-markets, games, fancy-fairs everywhere, and today we have a lovely sunny and mild day.

I was watching the festivities on tv. The royal family had already walked around for a while, joining in with the games and competitions as they always do, because frankly our royal family is made of awesome, and they were on a big open bus driving to the palace where they'd continue the festivities. Just after the bus had crossed a roundabout to turn into the palace park, a small black car came speeding through the crowd, across the roundabout, crashing into a fence around a monument. There was running and screaming and the main reporter trying to get someone on mike to understand where the car had come from, but no one seemed to know. The royal family was seen in utter shock, some of them standing, hands clasped over their faces. The bus drove on of course and they were taken inside the palace as soon as possible.

Ambulances arrived, police came from everywhere, wounded people lying scattered, some of whom were clearly being resuscitated and after half an hour or so it was announced that today's festivities were canceled for the rest of the day.

In the (slow-mo) rerun you can clearly see the car was already significantly damaged once it entered the roundabout. It is said that there was a man in the car and he's brought to hospital, but in the reruns I can't see anyone behind the wheel. The car was even before impact already so damaged it's hard to believe anyone would even fit in there, let alone survive. It's not clear what the man was up to, if it was an accident (highly unlikely) or what it was meant to be at all. The last count is 14 people were injured, most of whom seriously.

I'm still shaking, it's so shocking to see this happen live. This was supposed to be a happy day, and I can't help but wonder how this will affect future queens days, because they've always been so delightful.

Intellectually I say they royal family is a waste of money and monarchy is a stupid system that has no right to exist in these modern times. Secretly I'm nuts about them though.

My heart goes out to everyone hurt one way or another by this... whatever it was...

[edit] And of course it's already on YouTube:

You can clearly see how a policeman on a bike can only barely escape being squashed between the car and the fence and the shocked reactions from those on the bus.

[edit 2] There's just been a press-conference; the count now is 17 casualties, 4 of which have died, and 5 are in critical conditions. From the contact the police had with the man in the car it looks like he did it on purpose and it's a solo action by someone who wasn't known by the police or had a history of mental instability one way or another. It's the kind of thing that can't be anticipated or prevented.

All festivities in the city where this took place have been canceled, not just officially, but also because people just aren't in a festive mood anymore. It took a couple of hours for the news to spread and sink in nationally (most of the festivities take place outside and a short message on your mobile doesn't have the same impact as seeing it on tv), but now it has more festivities are being canceled and the official policy now is to set the flag at half-mast to indicate the news has been heard and activities are canceled.

[edit 3] The queen speaks.

My attempt at translation: 'What started out as a beautiful day, has ended in a terrible tragedy, which has shocked us all deeply. People who were near it, who have seen it happen on tv, everyone who has witnessed it, will have watched astounded and unbelieving. We are speechless that something terrible like this could happen. My family, but I think everyone in this country, empathize with all our hearts with the casualties, their family and friends and everyone who has been touched deeply by this accident.'

Comments

[samena.livejournal.com]

It's such an enormous tragedy. CNN has shown footage too, and there they talk of 4 people dead, but on Dutch tv one person has been confirmed as having died, so far. There will be a press conference at 15.45, and hopefully we'll learn more then. I can't imagine this was an accident, but nobody knows for sure why this has happened. If it was deliberate... why are there always people who want to ruin things for everyone else? Like you said, this was such a happy day, beautiful weather, people have been preparing for this day for months... It's so very sad, the way this turned out. But right now there's only shock, and confusion, and sadness. Festivities all around the country are being cancelled now, too. Our national celebration, ruined. It's as if the weather knows, because it's getting cloudy.

[rodneyscat.livejournal.com]

I always love queens day, because it's really a 'common people' kind of thing, with everyone being silly and friendly and cheerful. And I always love how the royal family just joins in, how the princes and their partners are always up for a challenge and seem genuinely interested. I'd planned to watch it all on tv and then go to the local flea-market. That turned out quite differently though.

[samena.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was really looking forward to watching it all on tv, because it was in Apeldoorn, at Het Loo, which is really special, and there was finally going to be an old fashioned Defilé again. Just as I sat down in front of the tv, it all happened. I just couldn't believe my eyes. I'm so very sorry for the victims, and their loved ones; and for the Dutch people, because their holiday has been taken away from them; and for the Royal Family, because this must be very hard on them as well.

I am both very sad and very angry. How can someone mess with our national holiday like this! My dad always looks after the flag for the whole apartment complex, and he went out, a while ago, and lowered it to half mast. It's so sad.

[mirabile-dictu.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, that's shocking -- more like something you'd see here in the US. I've googled a bit, but can't find much yet. I hope this was an accident; that would be bad enough, but something intentional would be so much worse.

[rodneyscat.livejournal.com]

It looks like it wasn't an accident although they don't know yet what the goal of this person was. It's amazing how one person can cause so much pain, confusion and disappointment in so many people.

[ledasdaughter.livejournal.com]

I just read about it! How absolutely horrible! Some of the victims have already died :*(
I just don't understand how anyone could do such a thing :(

[rodneyscat.livejournal.com]

I get the feeling that even if the man explains in detail what made him do this, we'll never stop asking 'yeah, but why?!?'

Some things are just incomprehensible.

[fantasy-fan.livejournal.com]

What a terrible thing to have happened on what was supposed to be such a festive day. I'm sure you're right that this will have an impact on future queen's days as well.

[rodneyscat.livejournal.com]

It's true; it's amazing how much impact the action of one man can have. Next queens day will be a day of mourning for some people and security will quite possibly be more tight. It's such a shame :(

[patsie.livejournal.com]

OMG that is terrible.

I hope noone else dies.

What a tragedy on what is meant to be a happy day.

[rodneyscat.livejournal.com]

I keep checking for more news, but it's one of those things where you never get a satisfying answer.

[jhava.livejournal.com]

How absolutely horrific -- particularly on view of what you've mentioned about it being intentional.

[rodneyscat.livejournal.com]

It's now certain that it was intentional and the man who did it died last night, so this is all the answer we get to our questions.

[darklock.livejournal.com]

I wonder what he could have run into before we see him in the vid. It actually looks like something heavy landed 'on top' of the front of the car. (I'm cringing to think it might have been people.) How tragic. I read in the comments that there were fatalities? Hideous.

I sincerely hope this doesn't interfere with next years festivities. (We've had this happen on occasion. It's traumatic.)

Oh... I found this in our news. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090430/ap_on_re_eu/eu_netherlands_parade_crash

[darklock.livejournal.com]

OMG... sorry. I'm so sorry - this is freaking 'me' out. This is absolutely evil. {{hugs}}

[rodneyscat.livejournal.com]

Since so many people were around with cameras, professionals and amateurs, there are a lot of pictures and vids coming in. One of the things that gets to me is how many people were around witnessing it and watching it live on tv. The man got quite an audience and it's all people are talking about wherever I go.

[loreley-se.livejournal.com]

How absolutely horrible. It's such a fun day - I've been in Amsterdam for it years and years ago, and had a blast. And then something like this happens, it's unbelievable.

Poor Queen Beatrix, she looks really really shocked.

[rodneyscat.livejournal.com]

It's always such a lovely day and we've always been so proud of how close the royal family will come to the people, how much they mingle. I wonder if this will change and to what extend.

Queen Beatrix looks like she aged 10 years in that short time. She and her family had front row seats to what happened so to speak, and it must be terribly shocking to know this was aimed at them and that so many people have suffered for it.

[cc-weasel.livejournal.com]

THis is such a terrible thing to happen on a fun day. The victims, the Queen and her family will be in my thoughts..

[mews1945.livejournal.com]

I'm so terribly sorry that such a thing happened. I can't imagine how horrible it was for all of you who were there, celebrating a happy day.

[rodneyscat.livejournal.com]

Everywhere you go people are talking about it and wondering what the impact will be. The man who did it died last night, so we won't get more answers, but I don't think any answer would have been sufficient anyway.