The annual post-new year debate about the dangers of fireworks has moved a significant step towards a nationwide ban in the Netherlands where surgeons were forced to amputate the hand of an 11-year-old boy and then remove one of his eyes last Sunday morning.
Until now, no Dutch political party was willing to back a total ban on fireworks, but that had already changed by Wednesday when one of the four Coalition parties, centre-left D66, became the first to back a ban on “consumer fireworks”, meaning displays not arranged by professional contractors.
Despite outright prohibition in 12 cities and towns around the country, hospitals reported “dozens” of serious injuries and emergency services said they were frequently attacked when they attempted to intervene – leading to demands for an emergency debate when parliament returns on January 17th.
Much of the anger at the widespread and routine flouting of the law now focuses on the case of the unnamed 11-year-old boy who was rushed to surgery at Wilhelmina Children’s Hospital in Utrecht while the endless barrage of rockets continued to crackle in the air outside.
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Plastic surgeon, Emma Paes, recounted on Tuesday how she and her team had just carried out an assessment of the patient and agreed there was no option but to amputate his hand, when seconds later they were also forced to conclude that his right eye also had to be removed immediately.
Later, walking to her car with the fireworks cacophony still in the background, Ms Paes commented: “This is not a happy new year. This is something terrible. I feel sad for this victim and his family and for all the other families. What are we doing?”
The same question has been on the mind of D66 MP Hanneke van der Werf, the party’s spokeswoman on public safety, who announced its U-turn in support of a nationwide ban, saying there was no longer any alternative.
“Once again, people were injured and police attacked”, she said. “Children were waiting to see if parents who work with the police or the emergency services came home in one piece.
“It’s a situation that’s been tolerated for far too long. But don’t think it’s normal. We just let it happen and next day count the cost.”
A survey of the Netherlands’ mayors by the local authorities’ organisation, VNG, said last year that 65 per cent supported an outright ban, and that percentage is now believed to be substantially higher.
However, the public appetite is being fed by criminal gangs. This year Dutch and German police seized the largest single haul of fireworks ever when 350,000 kilos imported from China, Poland and Italy was discovered in a former Nato bunker in Enschede, on the German border.
