A man in the Netherlands killed five bystanders at the annual Queen's Day parade as he tried to ram his car into the Dutch royal family, said Nick Squire in Britain’s The Telegraph. The driver, Karst Tates, narrowly missed the queen’s open bus, crashed into a statue, and later died from his injuries. Queen Beatrix and her family, uninjured, watched in “horror” as Tates plowed toward them through the sea of “orange wigs and bizarre hats.”
He may not have harmed the royal family, said the Dutch daily Volkskrant (via DutchNews.nl), but he killed a “national illusion”—that Queen Beatrix and other public officials in the Netherlands are “free and approachable.” And by attacking on our “only real national day of celebration,” Tates robbed us all of a key “only-in-the-Netherlands” curiosity.
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