Skip to main content

Netherlands bans electric carts after four children killed

The Dutch government has banned electric carts following a road-rail collision which killed four children in the southern town of Oss. The Stint cart carrying the children - aged four to eight - was hit by a train at a level crossing, the BBC says. A witness heard the 32-year-old female driver from a daycare centre shout that her brakes had failed. The driver and a fifth child were seriously injured in the crash. Stints can carry up to 10 children who are strapped in with a s eatbelt. The driver is
October 8, 2018 Read time: 2 mins

The Dutch government has banned electric carts following a road-rail collision which killed four children in the southern town of Oss.

The Stint cart carrying the children - aged four to eight - was hit by a train at a level crossing, the %$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 link-external BBC BBC News article false https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-45717871 false false%> says. A witness heard the 32-year-old female driver from a daycare centre shout that her brakes had failed.

The driver and a fifth child were seriously injured in the crash.

Stints can carry up to 10 children who are strapped in with a seatbelt. The driver is located at the back of the cart. 

The Infrastructure Ministry is carrying out an inquiry into the incident.

Edwin Renzen, founder of Stint, insists the cart is safe and that the Stint involved in the accident had not itself been investigated. 

The Dutch government approved the use of Stints in 2012 without requiring drivers to hold a licence or helmet. Around 3,500 carts were being used in the Netherlands before the ban.

UTC

Related Content

  • October 3, 2018
    UK man refuses to take down fake speed camera on A1 road
    A 72-year-old man living beside a major UK road has refused to take down a replica speed camera. The BBC report says Mike Lacey built the fake camera for £40 using drainpipe and guttering to slow drivers passing his house next to the A1 in Beeston, Bedfordshire. Lacey says authorities have asked him to remove the structure as it was distracting for drivers. The village is divided by a dual-carriageway with a speed limit of 50mph.
  • November 6, 2019
    NTSB: Uber’s AV in fatal crash ‘had software issues’
    The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has found that an Uber autonomous vehicle which killed Elaine Herzberg last year had software flaws. NTSB released a report which says the Volvo XC60’s autonomous system software classified the pedestrian as an unknown object and determined that an emergency braking manoeuvre was needed to mitigate the collision. Uber confirmed that emergency braking manoeuvres must be carried out manually and the system is not designed to alert the driver. Data
  • April 11, 2018
    Dubai to trial digital vehicle number plates
    Vehicles in Dubai will be fitted with digital number plates to inform emergency services of drivers involved in accidents – according to a report by the BBC. The cars will be equipped with smart plates with digital screens, GPS and transmitters for a trial starting next month. Sultan Abdullah al-Marzouqi, head of the vehicle licensing department at Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), said that the plates will make life easier for drivers in Dubai. He added that the initiative will also work out
  • December 19, 2018
    Elon Musk unveils Los Angeles tunnel plan
    Elon Musk, the boss of Tesla and SpaceX, has opened the first tunnel in a planned network under Los Angeles to help ease congestion in the US city. The world’s media was invited this week to travel in the mile-long tunnel – built by Musk’s Boring Company under the Hawthorne district - in an electric Tesla vehicle. The trip was described as “almost a white knuckle ride” by the BBC: “A bumpy two-minute journey in a modified Model X through a concrete tunnel with a blue neon light in the ceiling.” A C