Monday, October 29, 2007

Hufterproof ("jerk-proof") bus stop destroyed. Jerks suspected.

(photo:algemeen dagblad)
"Hufters" have destroyed one of the Netherlands' new "Hufter proof" bus stops.
"Hufter" means something like jerk, or anti-social. In this case, it really means, juvenile delinquents.

The bus stops were installed to great fanfare on Oct. 12 in the town of Maasdam. That's part of Binnenmaas. That's part of Holland.

Saturday night, the destroyers stacked some kind of kindling in one, soaked it in gasoline, and burnt it to the ground.

(photo:nieuws.nl)

If I read the website of manufacturer "Havadi" correctly, the bus stops were made of styrofoam, and covered with some kind of special fiberglass resin to repel graffiti. The side doors were of plexiglass.

It could only be burned by a fire of 500 degrees centigrade. The paper said.

"We never said that they couldn't be broken," spokesman Erik Franc told Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad. "When you say something like that, you just provoke the youth."


Actually, the company's website pretty clearly claims to have developed "hufterproof" bus stops.

"The first "hufterproof" bus stops were placed in Binnenmaas on Oct. 12. The police of this municipality went crazy on the bus stop with rocks and baseball bats and it withstood the trial with great success!"

So, to their credit, they did use "smart" quotation marks around the word "hufterproof."
On the other hand, company employees also appeared saying the bus stops were invincible on youth television program "BNN."
(nieuws.nl)

According to the paper, now Havadi is going to try adding a fireproof material.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Let them up the Ante, milled steel bus stops. I'll get my thermite-recipies out. Seriously, what are they thinking: Hey everybody, We got a INDESTRUCTIBLE BUSSTOP! You CANT destroy this! No, really, you cant! I dare you, try and destr..Oops, somebody set fire to it!

Derek said...

That's the kind of initiative in answering a challenge that kids in America just plain lack. Lazy, apathetic little bastards...