The information is relayed by our colleagues at the DH. Last Friday, Marie was cycling in the Soignes forest in Brussels when she witnessed an impressive accident. A man riding a monowheel – a single-wheeled electric machine – fell heavily right in front of her. Unconscious and with a bloody face, he did not react.
Due to a lack of network on her own phone, Marie asks for help from a passerby to call for help. On the other end of the line, the emergency service operator refuses to continue the conversation in French. She replied in Dutch: “We zijn een Vlaamse overheid”, or “We are a Flemish authority”. She claims that the call can only be made in Dutch, without offering an alternative.
In the meantime, the injured man, who according to Marie seemed to be under the influence of alcohol, finally came to his senses and left on his own. The accident occurred in the Flemish part of the Soignes forest. However, Belgian legislation requires that French-speaking operators be available to answer emergency calls, even in Flanders.
Watermael-Boitsfort, David Leisterh (MR) expressed his indignation and called for sanctions: “The operator concerned must be sanctioned,” he declared.
