Peter van der Vorst (48) is still thinking about taking therapy because of his presence at the attack in Apeldoorn, on Queen’s Day 2009. He told this on Sunday in the program ‘De Press Tribune’. A car ran into a procession involving the royal family, killing eight.
As a royalty reporter at the time, Peter drove a car behind the Orange bus and witnessed the attack from close by. “We saw it happen before our eyes, the car barely hit us,” said the RTL program director. “It was, especially when I think back to it, a very traumatic experience. It seemed like everything was standing still, like there was no sound. We were really in shock.”
Van der Vorst still cannot hear a gate fall without immediately thinking back to that moment of the attack. “I am right back to the screams and the stress and the people who were dying around me.”
The program maker has often thought of EMDR therapy, which can help to process trauma. “Ruud de Wild and Jeroen Kijk in de Vegte advised that too, they had experienced something similar with the murder of Fortuyn in which they were present. It never materialized, you think about it and then let it go again. But maybe I should do it some time. “
