The Public Prosecution Service demanded on Tuesday community service of 180 hours against two skippers for their role in a fatal boat accident on the Wadden Sea in 2022. The Public Prosecution Service suspects them of manslaughter and causing serious bodily harm.
In addition to the community service, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) demanded suspended prison sentences of three months against the suspects.
The suspects in the case of the fatal boat accident are the 35-year-old skipper of water taxi Stormloper and the 49-year-old captain of speedboat Tiger, who collided in October 2022. Four people on board did not survive the accident in the Schuitengat near Terschelling. The body of a twelve-year-old victim has still not been found.
Both boats were traveling too fast. The speedboat had a speed of 55 kilometers per hour just before the accident, the water taxi was traveling almost 30 kilometers per hour. A maximum speed of 20 kilometers per hour applies in the Schuitengat.
“If both suspects had complied with the rules, this accident would not have happened,” the public prosecutors said on Tuesday during a hearing in the court in Leeuwarden. “Both could have prevented the collision.” According to the Public Prosecution Service, they sailed “carelessly and negligently”.
During the hearing, the skipper of the Stormloper said that he could not remember the accident. He suffers from a form of memory loss and told the judge that he only knew that he left Harlingen and had contact with the speedboat via the marine radio near Terschelling. “The next moment I was hanging on the bow of the boat,” said the skipper, who was also injured in the accident.
The captain of the Tiger also spoke. Although he was traveling too fast in the Schuitengat, he said he was “of the opinion” that there was “no speed limit”.
A recording of the marine radio conversation prior to the collision was played in the courtroom. The captain of the Tiger told his opponent that he could better pass the speedboat on the unusual starboard side. “I picked up the marine radio to know what his intentions were. He was already on the red side for me,” he said. During the marine radio contact, the men did not reach an agreement because the skipper of the water taxi no longer responded.
According to the Public Prosecution Service, the skipper made an “incomprehensible and unsafe steering movement” at the last moment, leaving the skipper of the ferry no choice but to sail over the water taxi.