Valentijn Driessen does not understand that Rai Vloet is still a player of Heracles Almelo. The club suspended the attacker on Friday for lying about the circumstances of the fatal accident he caused in November. A four-year-old toddler, Gio Roos, died as a result. Vloet had a lot more than the permitted amount of alcohol in his blood – a blood alcohol level of 1.18 where a maximum of 0.5 is allowed for experienced drivers – and he would have driven 203 kilometers per hour. “Then you have absolutely no control or power over this murder weapon,” says the football chief of The Telegraph Saturday in a video item of the daily newspaper.
Vloet claimed not to have driven faster than the speed limit of 130 kilometers per hour and to have drunk no more than two alcoholic drinks. According to Heracles, the new, detailed information was not yet available when it was decided to bring Vloet back into the selection, have them train and even let them play again. “How in God’s name is it possible. Where is your mind the moment you get in the car. I can’t imagine Heracles not knowing this. This comes from the official report,” emphasizes the journalist. “I don’t understand why he is still a Heracles player.”
Gio’s parents told their story on Saturday in The Telegraph. Steffin and Sanne Roos say they have not heard anything from Vloet yet, while the club is open this week Tubantia said their player “has made personal contact with the family to offer his personal condolences.” According to his lawyer, the police were informed that they wanted to contact him. Vloet did express his condolences on a video, but the parents indicate that they think that he mainly plays the victim himself.
“The gripping thing is that Vloet hangs up a dick story at Heracles TV,” Driessen continues. “He’s almost the victim if you can believe it. Then you hear that hardly any contact has been made with the family. (…) Heracles wrote a note and nothing more has been heard of it.” Driessen points out that the friend has shown ‘some compassion’ by asking the police several times how the Roos family was doing. “But for Rai Vloet, the world just went on, it seems.”
Driessen points out that Vloet’s return was the trigger for the Roos family to come out. “It looked like life could get going again for Vloet. He plays, Heracles cooperates and people shout ‘second chance’. (…) They see that everyone just talks about it and that the victim seems to be Vloet. But the victims are of course the parents and the boy himself. I can imagine that your blood starts to boil, that you want to tell your story. This just can’t go on.”
“There is simply no room for this man in Dutch professional football. This must be over. Heracles must fire him. I don’t think there is even a club in the Netherlands that dares to contract Vloet.· Driessen finds Heracles’ behavior incomprehensible. “One hundred percent. Your stomach turns. You expect a certain compassion. Those clubs say: ‘Socially we do this, socially we do that’. And then you have to be there as a club and then they are not there. It is really below par. I can well imagine that the parents have difficulty with that.”
In the accident, the mother fractured her eye socket and damaged a nerve in her face. As a result, part of her jaw is numb. The father is often dizzy since the accident. Baby Faye seems to have come away wonderfully without damage. After the accident, of course, the mental aspect remains: the sadness and trauma of what they saw from the accident and in the hospital.
Gio’s parents mainly want to hear that the Vloet is sorry. “That he should never have drunk in the car and should not have driven so fast. His friend called the police six times to ask how we were doing, but Vloet didn’t. Does he feel, does he regret? We won’t get Gio back with a prison sentence, but whatever punishment he gets, it’s never enough for us.”