Mobile traffic controller Johan van den Akker of Rijkswaterstaat did not know what he saw last Saturday. A motorboat sailed between the swimmers and suppers at 55 km/h on a side arm of the Maas near Roermond. “You can’t go faster than 9 km/h there. It was very crowded. Really dangerous. You don’t want to think about what could have happened if you hit someone at that speed.” He opened the throttle on his watercraft to find the fast boat. When he came alongside, his mouth dropped open in surprise. ,,There was a German boy of 12 years old and a friend of the same age behind the wheel. They had sailed with his mother and father from the marina to a restaurant. Father had drunk too much there and asked the boy to sail the dinghy with 50 HP outboard motor back to the marina. The parents walked. He was not allowed to sail fast. That’s like sending a kid out with a jar of candy and telling him not to eat it.”
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