Van Vollenhoven is currently best known in the Netherlands for having been the chairman of the
Dutch Safety Board from which he retired in February 2011. He was originally appointed chairman of the Road Transportation Safety Board and the Rail Incident Board by
minister Tjerk Westerterp. Following the
Bijlmer and
Hercules disasters, a need was felt in The Netherlands for a single body to investigate all transportation-related incidents; the Transportation Safety Council (Dutch:
Raad voor de Transportveiligheid) was created, which incorporated the earlier Road Transportation Safety and Rail Incident Boards and also had Van Vollenhoven as chairman. Van Vollenhoven felt, however, that the country should have a single board to investigate
all safety-related issues; lobbying on his part finally convinced the government to transform the Transportation Safety Council into a general Safety Board, of which Van Vollenhoven was made the first chairman. Due to his expertise in the area, the
University of Twente made Van Vollenhoven a professor on 1 October 2005. He holds the policy research chair, which is a subspecialty of the
risk management group. He held his
oration on 28 April 2006, and called for the creation of a Minister of Safety at that time. In 1989, Van Vollenhoven took the initiative in setting up the Dutch
Victim Support Fund, of which he is also the chairman. He is also chairman of the
Nationaal Groenfonds, the
National Restorationfund and the
Society, Safety and Police Association and the
International Transport Safety Board. He is a member of the
European Transport Safety Council.
Notable acts As Chairman of the Safety Board, Van Vollenhoven oversaw the investigation of the
Schipholbrand, a fire in a holding facility for illegal immigrants in The Netherlands. He presented a final report on 21 September 2006, with such devastating findings that ministers
Piet Hein Donner and
Sybilla Dekker resigned over it. A third responsible minister,
Rita Verdonk refused to resign despite her responsibility in the matter. Following the
Turkish Airlines Flight 1951 crash, Van Vollenhoven led the investigation by the Safety Board. This investigation brought him into conflict with the
Office of the Attorney General, which requested access to the
black box data. Citing that there was no reason at that time to suspect foul play and that the Board investigation would be hampered by the threat of legal action against persons, Van Vollenhoven absolutely refused this access. When he turned 70, Barry Sweedler (of the US National Transportation Safety Board) said to him: "The world is a safer place because of your work and leadership". ==Hobbies==