Online streaming platform Netflix has decided to cut scenes of the real train crash at Buizingen in Flemish Brabant from Death Note, a horror film which Netflix released in 2017. The accident happened on 15 February 2010, at rush hour in heavy snow. Two trains, one local train travelling from Leuven to Braine le Comte and the other an IC train from Quiévrain to Liege, collided at Buizingen near Halle in Flemish Brabant.
The accident caused the deaths of 19 people, and 171 were injured in what was the worst rail accident in Belgium in half a century.
Three investigations were held, including a judicial investigation that held the cause to be human error by the driver of the Leuven train, who had passed a signal at red. A trial started and was stopped to allow the proceedings to be carried out in the language of the French-speaking driver. It restarted in January this year, and continues.
Netflix, meanwhile, obtained footage from the aftermath of the accident legally from a digital image bank, and included it in the horror film, whose plot was unrelated to the accident. The families of victims protested that the use of the footage was “tasteless”. Netflix finally agreed.
“We have decided to replace the fragment, and offer our apologies to all those who have been offended,” a spokesperson for the company said.
The new re-edited version of the film, which stars Willem Dafoe, will appear on the platform shortly, Netflix said.
Alan Hope
The Brussels Times
