Slippery roads have led to accidents and traffic delays in Bavaria. There were numerous incidents on Thursday and Friday. The police reported some property damage, but there were also injuries in several accidents.
The German Weather Service (DWD) had predicted some slippery roads. A 24-year-old driver was seriously injured in an accident on a snowy road near Tander in the Dachau district on Thursday. According to the police report on Friday, he had been traveling too fast. The car came off the right side of the road and overturned.
A similar accident happened on Thursday near Wattendorf in the Upper Franconian district of Bamberg, the police said on Friday. Here it was a 57-year-old motorist who was seriously injured in the hospital after she went off the road at an inappropriate speed and her car overturned.
The Autobahn 73 near Coburg had to be completely closed for two hours on Thursday because three accidents occurred in quick succession. First, a 25-year-old lost control of her car and slid into the central barrier. According to the police, the woman was unharmed.
A little later, a 54-year-old approached the scene of the accident with his car, tried to brake and skidded. The driver was not injured. Shortly thereafter, a third person skidded while stopping and drove head-on into the central crash barrier. The total damage from the series of accidents is estimated at 35,000 euros. Because of the three accident vehicles and some debris, the police blocked the highway completely.
The westbound A6 also had to be closed for a good four hours near Altdorf near Nuremberg on Friday night. At around 1:15 a.m., a 62-year-old truck driver lost control of his vehicle on a snowy road. The truck came to a standstill across the direction of travel and blocked the roadway. The driver was not injured. A driver was seriously injured during an evasive maneuver in Bad Wörishofen (Unterallgäu) on Thursday. After a van skidded and crashed into a tree, a 62-year-old woman had to avoid the van, according to the police. She is said to have swerved into the oncoming lane. Here she collided with another car. The driver of the car was seriously injured. The 62-year-old and the driver of the van were slightly injured. There was damage of around 15,000 euros.
Blocking of the A9
On the A9 near Plech (Bayreuth district), a truck skidded on the slippery road on Thursday evening. According to the police, another tractor-trailer then drove onto the truck. The driver of the second truck was injured and taken to a hospital. Around 400 liters of fuel ran out in the collision. As a result, the highway had to remain closed until the early hours of the morning.
The traffic police in Freising, Upper Bavaria, reported eight accidents caused by snow on Friday night. One person was slightly injured. Five trucks and six cars were involved.
A motorway also had to be completely closed in the area: the A9 was closed for a good 20 minutes due to rescue work on an accident trailer. On Friday morning there were some ice accidents, especially in southern Bavaria.
School bus with 36 children overturns
A school bus with 36 children slipped off the snowy road into a ditch near Rötz (Cham district) on Friday morning. “Fortunately, everyone involved in the accident was not injured,” said a police spokesman. The 7 to 14-year-old students and the bus driver had to smash a side window with an emergency hammer and scramble out of the side of the bus. The doors were blocked because the bus had come to rest at a 45-degree angle against the side of the ditch – in a meadow.
The 58-year-old bus driver was traveling at an inappropriate speed on the narrow, snow-covered road, said the police spokesman. When a 20-year-old came towards him with her car, he steered the bus to the right into the ditch to avoid a frontal collision.
The police, rescue service and fire brigade arrived, and emergency chaplains and a rescue helicopter were also requested. After the accident, landlords opened their inns nearby and provided children and rescue workers with tea and coffee free of charge. The students were finally examined there and handed over to their parents. According to the police spokesman, it was no longer possible to go to school that morning.
The DWD predicts up to five centimeters of fresh snow in the eastern low mountain ranges and the eastern Alps for Friday. In the night to Saturday there should be light frost and widespread smoothness in Bavaria.