EXISTENCE TUF TUF CLUB THREATENED

Both the Dutch and the Belgian leaders of the Tuf Tuf Club suffer from serious misfortune. They get more and more opposition form different sides. The publisher of the Belgian comic Suske & Wiske wants that the anarchistic pro car movement disappears as soon as possible. At least the name. The Dutch chairman hat to resign because he is accused of comparing a public prosecutor with Hitler. The Belgian chairman was arrested because he is suspected of burning down a flash pole.

The Tuf Tuf club is a loose club of pro car fanatics opposing all the expensive measures against speeding. They call speed controls ´stealing on the side of the road´. The club is constantly fighting with the authorities that ´misuses the traffic safety to obtain extra capital.´ They think driving a bit too fast should be no problem.

In the early fifties the Belgian comics writer Willy Vandesteen published an issue in the series Suske & Wiske called the Tuf Tuf Club. The main characters fight against the bad guys, the racers that drive too fast ´Tuf Tuffers´. The racers in the end have to taste defeat. A story with a strong moral and the modern Tuf tuffers' decieded to change around the story and win from the good guys.

Apart form the problems the chairmen and ex/chairman of the Tuf Tuf Club have also the followers are in trouble. Nowadays most of the radar and anti speed control car equipment is prohibited. For the rest a new anti speeding system is constructed in the West of the Netherlands at the moment. It is called route control. Different cameras along the high way measure the speed of a car over a longer distance. The computer calculated the average speed. Too fast, the ticket will be send to you automatically. The first experiment with route control was a huge success. No speeding anymore. Until now the Tuf Tuf races did not come up with an answer. more features

January 19, 2004