Emergency order leads to ‘controllable’ idleness in Hoeksche Waard

In association with

Rijnmond

NOS News•today, 11:20•Amended today, 11:39

With an emergency order, the municipality of Hoeksche Waard has prevented large groups of scooter riders from making the island unsafe early this morning.

Thirty people were stopped by the police when they tried to enter the Hoeksche Waard. Three people were arrested, Rijnmond reports. The police speak of a ‘controllable slacker’. Lazy is the tradition of making noise early on the Saturday before Pentecost and mocking late risers.

Mayor Van Heijningen had issued an emergency order for last night. There was a ban on gatherings for four or more people with scooters or other motorized traffic. The mayor says he has no problem with the lazy tradition of making noise early in the morning on the morning of King’s Day.

But in recent years things have gotten out of hand. “In previous years we saw hundreds of scooter, quad and motorcycle riders taking over the village streets and performing life-threatening antics. This poses great danger to the people on the street,” says Van Heijningen. “All it takes is one driver to lose control of the wheel, make a slide into the crowd and then the suffering is incalculable. So we are going to take action against this so-called slacking.”

In practice, this meant that the police strictly checked all access roads to the island early this morning. On the road towards Oud-Beijerland, all traffic was even checked, with the police also deploying many motorcyclists. “No one is allowed to go to Oud-Beijerland if you don’t belong there,” said a policewoman around 5:30 am near Rijnmond.

Ultimately, thirty people were denied access to Hoeksche Waard. Two people have been arrested for driving under the influence. A man from Oud-Beijerland was also arrested because he had brass knuckles with him.

The police are satisfied that it has remained calm on the island. “The emergency order helped us control it,” a spokesperson said. The emergency order expired at 10 a.m. this morning.

This week, the police also arrested two men from Ridderkerk and a man from Sliedrecht for incitement in the run-up to King’s Night. They are suspected of having called for disruption of public order on social media by exhibiting unsafe behavior in traffic on the early morning of King’s Day.