Prosecution: Rotterdam woman was at the wheel in Aruba
According to the Public Prosecution Service, video footage is among the evidence, but the investigation into the fatal accident is still ongoing.
The Public Prosecution Service in Aruba says that 23-year-old Kimberly van A. from Rotterdam was driving the off-road vehicle herself when she died last month. According to the service, this is shown, among other things, by video footage; the investigation has not yet been completed.
The accident occurred on 13 September near San Nicolas in Aruba. The woman was in a UTV, an open off-road vehicle, which overturned for reasons that remain unknown. Two men were also in the vehicle and, according to earlier reports, escaped unharmed.
The Royal Netherlands Marechaussee is investigating the case because a Dutch marine was involved in the accident. The investigation was initially conducted by the Aruban authorities. The Marechaussee had previously said it still had to establish who was driving.
The family of the deceased woman questioned the earlier account that she had been at the wheel. Relatives told RTL Nieuws that they were seeking independent witnesses and wanted the circumstances to be investigated themselves. The family is being assisted by lawyer Peter Schouten.
The Public Prosecution Service now says that available investigative findings, including video footage, support the earlier account. The service has not made further details about the material or the precise circumstances of the accident public. According to the service, that provisionally answers the question of who was driving, but the full circumstances are not yet known.
The distinction between those two questions is important. Establishing who the driver was does not in itself say what caused the vehicle to overturn, nor whether anyone can be held criminally responsible. According to the information available, technical and other investigations into this are still under way.
The new statement is therefore not a final conclusion on culpability. The Public Prosecution Service has only made the state of the investigation public after a dispute arose over it in public and within the family. New investigative findings may still add to the assessment of the case.
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The new conclusion has been carefully attributed to the Public Prosecution Service and not presented as a judicially established finding. Details about the cause and any culpability have explicitly been left open.
- confirmed The Public Prosecution Service in Aruba says that Kimberly van A. was driving herself. — This is the substance of the new statement by the Public Prosecution Service, as reported by multiple public sources. source
- confirmed According to the Public Prosecution Service, video footage is part of the evidence. — This was mentioned in reports about the service's statement. source
- confirmed The investigation has not yet been completed. — This appears in the Public Prosecution Service's public explanation as quoted by the source. source
Editor's note
The Public Prosecution Service's new account has been confirmed by multiple public reports. The service says that video footage supports the conclusion, but has not published the full evidence or its final conclusion on the circumstances.Sources
- Justitie Aruba: Rotterdamse Kimberly zat zelf achter het stuur bij dodelijk ongeluk — NOS
- OM Aruba: Kimberly bestuurde zelf voertuig bij dodelijk ongeluk — NieuwsOog
- Openbaar Ministerie Aruba — Openbaar Ministerie Aruba
More on this in Dutch media
- AD — „aruba san nicolas”
- de Volkskrant — „aruba san nicolas”
- RTL Nieuws — „aruba san nicolas”