30% fewer calls to emergency services this New Year's

Emergency services responded to fewer incidents this New Year's than the year before. 30 percent fewer reports were received through the P2000 network, ANP reports based on data from alarmeringen.nl.

Between 6:00 p.m. and midnight, the emergency services control rooms received 1,503 reports via P2000, compared to 2,139 in the same period of 2019. On the whole of New Year's Eve, a total of 4,143 reports were received, 20 percent less than the 5,191 reports received the year before.

Ophthalmologist Tjeerd de Faber of the Rotterdam Eye hospital told newspaper AD that they also had an exceptionally quiet New Year's.

"This is the quietest New Year's Eve in the 23 years that I have been doing this," he said. The Rotterdam hospital treated one case of fireworks injuries and two carbide related injuries last night. "Last year we experienced a horror night on New Year's and I had already treated 18 fireworks victims by this time. That is a huge difference from this night."

"The big factor is that lighting consumer fireworks was not allowed," Faber said. "I think proof that a fireworks ban works has been provided."

A quieter New Year's Eve for emergency workers does not mean there were no injuries. In the Noord-Holland village of De Kwakel, a man will likely lose his hand after a fireworks accident. What exactly happened is not yet clear, but a police spokesperson told AD that the man was lighting fireworks himself when things went wrong.