Stints cleared to return to the road a year after fatal crash

The electric transport vehicles known as ‘Stints’ will be back on the road for the new school year after strict conditions were agreed.

Transport minister Cora van Nieuwenhuizen wrote to Parliament on Wednesday with details of the new rules. The 3,000 Stints are being upgraded to fix a problem with the braking system and will be allowed to carry a maximum of eight children, rather than 10 as before.

The wagons were widely used to transport children to and from daycare facilities, but were banned in the wake of a fatal crash in Oss, Noord-Brabant, last year in which four children died.

Last week the public prosecution service said it had been unable to determine the cause of the accident last September in which a Stint collided with a train. Prosecutors said that the 33-year-old woman driving the vehicle had done everything she could to stop the vehicle.