Editing Pieter van Vollenhoven (section)

==Current positions==
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 (Christianity)|minister]] [[Tjerk Westerterp]]. Following the [[El Al Flight 1862|Bijlmer]] and [[Herculesramp|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 [[Fond Slachtofferhulp|Victim Support Fund]], of which he is also the chairman. He is also chairman of the [[Nationaal Groenfonds]], the [[Nationaal Restauratiefonds|National Restorationfund]] and the [[Stichting Maatschappij, Veiligheid en Politie|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 [[Attorney general|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.<ref name="NRCArgument">{{cite news |title=Van Vollenhoven geeft zwarte dozen niet af |author=Editorial board |newspaper=[[NRC Handelsblad]] |date=28 February 2009 |url=http://www.nrc.nl/binnenland/article2165644.ece/Geen_gronden_om_zwarte_doos_aan_OM_te_geven |access-date=17 September 2010 |language=nl |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090302090534/http://www.nrc.nl/binnenland/article2165644.ece/Geen_gronden_om_zwarte_doos_aan_OM_te_geven |archive-date=2 March 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

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".