Community service for skippers in fatal Wadden Sea crash; Boy, 12, still missing

The court in Leeuwarden sentenced two skippers involved in a fatal collision between a water taxi and a speedboat on the Wadden Sea in 2022 to 240 hours of community service each. Three men and a 12-year-old boy were killed in the crash, and four people were injured. The boy’s body was never found.

The court also gave each of the two men suspended prison sentences of three months. The sentence is higher than the Public Prosecution Service (OM) recommended. The OM asked the court to sentence the skippers to 180 hours of community service, plus a three-month suspended prison term.

According to the court, the skippers did not communicate clearly about how they were sailing on the Schutengat, the shipping channel near Terschelling, where the accident happened on 21 October 2022. They were also speeding, the court said. “Speeding results in less time to anticipate and communicate how to pass, and on the other hand, leads to a more severe impact during the collision,” the judge said, NOS reports.

Earlier during the trial, the victims’ loved ones spoke about their losses. “I have to continue without my husband and one of my pieces of gold,” said the woman who lost her 46-year-old husband and 12-year-old son in the collision. Her boy is still missing, and she doesn’t expect that he will ever be found. “I no longer know whether I want anything to be found. Now I cling to the idea that the sea is looking after him and that he has a watery grave.”

“Life goes on, but despite that, because of what happened on 21 October 2022, our family will never be whole again,” she said.