The company behind the stint is bankrupt. That says Edwin Renzen, co-owner of Stintum on Monday in an interview with de Volkskrant. A new generation of electric wagon wagons is almost ready, but according to Renzen, Minister Cora van Nieuwenhuizen of Infrastructure and Water Management “suddenly changed the rules at the end of the competition”.
The company has developed a new version of the stint, the BSO Bus, after the fatal accident with a stint in Oss. Two years ago, four young children were killed in the collision with a train and the attendant and another child were seriously injured.
Shortly after the accident in Oss, the minister stints prohibited access to the public road. Since then, the manufacturer has been working on returning the vehicle to the public road.
According to Renzen, sixty of the 1,500 out-of-school care buses ordered are ready for use in a warehouse in Nijkerk. The new electric wagon features a steel roll cage, side mirrors and a ‘black box’. According to the manufacturer, the National Road Transport Agency and the TNO research institute are satisfied, and they were waiting for the approval of the ministry.
The minister wanted new methods to determine risks
Van Nieuwenhuizen sent a letter to the Lower House on 16 July of this year in which she postponed the decision. She first wanted a new methodology from the Institute for Road Safety Research (SWOV) that shows how much risk vehicles run in traffic.
According to Renzen, the minister suddenly changes the rules of the game at the end of the game. If you postpone again at this point in the process, you don’t want the stint back on the road. But say so. “:
Van Nieuwenhuizen understands impatience, but according to her, “careful decision-making and road safety take precedence over speed and innovation”.
Edwin Renzen fired all his nineteen remaining employees last week. On Monday, the three hundred childcare organizations that make use of the stint will be told that they no longer have to count on a BSO Bus.
Cause of accident cannot be traced
Last July, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) and the police concluded that the cause of the accident cannot be traced. An investigation has shown that the driver made every effort during the accident to bring the stint to a halt.
She failed and the stint was still moving when it passed under the railroad barrier and also when the vehicle collided with a train. No traces were found on or in the stint indicating a malfunction or failure shortly before the accident.
Earlier research by the Dutch Safety Board (OVV) already showed that the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management paid insufficient attention to safety when admitting motorized vehicles such as the stints. Minister Cora van Nieuwenhuizen apologized for this.
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