Dutch Queen's Day turns into deadly drama

April 30, 10:11 AMSeattle Family Shopping ExaminerAdriana van Dam

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A car plows through the Queen's Day crowds in Holland killing 4 wounding 13
(AP Photo/Robin Utrecht, Pool)

Dutch Queen’s Day started out as usual today: very festive. It was a gorgeous day. Millions of people were out and about celebrating. Many gathered along the parade route in the Dutch city of Apeldoorn. Parents, children and grandparents were cheering as the royal family passed…..And then a car plowed through the crowd killing 4 people and wounding 13. Eyewitnesses spoke of "people flying through the air".The car finally crashed into a stone monument. The driver survived the crash and has been arrested. His actions were premeditated. He stated he planned to attack the royal family. He missed the open top double-decker bus that was transporting Dutch queen Beatrix and many other members of the Dutch royal family only by a couple of meters.

All festivities for the remainder of the day were canceled. The royal family is extremely distraught, they witnessed everything. They saw the deaths, they heard the screams. Later in the day queen Beatrix, who was visibly shocked, adressed the people in a television broadcast expressing her disbelief that something like this could happen and offering her condoleances to the families of the victims.

Queen’s Day will never be the same. From now on the deaths of Queen’s Day 2009 will be remembered. Security will be beefed up significantly (even though there were many, many undercover police officers in the crowd, the car could not be stopped). There may be changes to the entire Queen’s Day protocol. Will there ever be a public address from the balcony again? Will there even be a parade again?

A national celebration and long time tradition has been turned into a drama today in The Netherlands.

What keeps going through my mind is: could this have been prevented? How did this car get through security? Could this have happened here in DC during Obama’s inauguration? Could a car have gotten through somehow and would it have been able to get up enough speed to plough through the crowds?  I doubt it. Security standards are different around the world. But that was the uniqueness of the Dutch royals, to be approachable. They celebrate with the people amongst the people, they shake hands, ride bicycles and interact directly with the citizens. No bullet proof glass. This will very likely change from now on....and in this case it wasn't even the royals that needed protection from the people, it was the people who needed protection from danger.

My heart goes out to the families of the victims and the wounded....

For more information about the incident, click here.

For more information about Queen's Day, see wikipedia

Background information about the Dutch royal family.

Update: This drama has claimed the life of one more person, the dead count is now 5.

Here's my write-up about Queen's Day in Seattle which was celebrated last Saturday blissfully unaware of what would unfold on Queen's Day in Holland the following week...

Update on May 1: the dead count is now 7. This includes the perpetrator himself.

Note from author: Even though I am the Seattle Family Shopping Examiner and this topic doesn't necessarily fit what I usually write about, I chose to report about this sad event anyways as I am a Dutch native myself and am deeply touched by this drama. I also recently wrote about a Queen's Day celebration in Seattle.