Footballer Vloet admits drinking before fatal accident, prosecutor demands 3.5 years in prison

Professional footballer Rai Vloet admits he had drunk “two to three glasses of liquor” prior to the fatal accident on the A4 near Hoofddorp in 2021. That killed a 4-year-old boy.

Vloet is on trial in Haarlem today. The public prosecutor has demanded three and a half years in prison against him.

Vloet said he was working on the cruise control when his car collided with the back of another car. The judge found that implausible because he was driving 203 kilometers per hour just before the accident.

“That’s hard, very hard. And you say: I was going to set the cruise control,” an Omroep West reporter quoted the judge as saying.

“I myself am responsible for it,” Vloet said of the decision to get into the car under the influence. The prosecution believes Vloet is responsible for the fatal accident.

Vloet was suspended by his then club Heracles Almelo after the accident, then left for Kazakhstan and is now playing soccer in Russia. The judge asked him if the accident contributed to that choice. “The Netherlands became a bit uninhabitable,” he said about that.

The relatives of the 4-year-old victim are also present in court today. They brought a photo of him. “Our life stands still and you just carry on as if nothing is wrong. You are going to play soccer in Kazakhstan and Russia,” the victim’s mother told the defendant.

The professional soccer player said he feels great sorrow from the fatal accident. “I only feel pain. So many regrets. I have to carry that for the rest of my life.”

Watch footage from just after the accident on the A4 here: