Status: 01/21/2023 12:04 p.m
Snow and slippery roads have led to numerous traffic accidents in many parts of Germany. A woman died in Rhineland-Palatinate. There are also restrictions on public transport in some places.
Temperatures below zero, heavy snowfall and black ice – especially in large parts of southern Germany, the onset of winter surprised many drivers at night. There were numerous accidents, some of them serious. An overview.
Rhineland-Palatinate
In the district of Mayen-Koblenz, a driver died after colliding head-on with a bus on a snow-covered road. According to the police, the 86-year-old had lost control of her vehicle. The bus driver couldn’t get out of the way in time, there were no passengers on the bus.
In the region around Kaiserslautern there were also more accidents during the night and in the morning: according to the police, there were up to 70 accidents in the western Palatinate alone. One person was seriously injured and five others slightly. For the most part, however, it was left with sheet metal damage.
The accidents lead to traffic jams on many motorways: In the Rheinhessen region, for example, a truck crashed into the crash barrier and had to be recovered by a crane. Parts of the A61 remained closed until the rescue work was completed, the police said.
Bavaria
Also in Bavaria slippery roads caused hundreds of accidents. On Friday evening alone, nine collisions with six minor injuries occurred on the A94 in the direction of Munich.
Not only drivers have to be prepared for traffic jams – passengers in local public transport also need patience: In Coburg and Würzburg, for example, the buses stopped driving for hours in the morning because many streets were not sufficiently cleared.
In Würzburg, two buses slipped into a ditch. The doors of one vehicle could no longer be opened. “The approximately ten passengers and the driver had to get out through the top hatch,” said a police spokesman. Luckily, no one got hurt.
Weather service expects more snowfall
The German Weather Service (DWD) expects wintry and at times unstable weather and sometimes heavy snowfall in large parts of Germany for the weekend. There could be up to 25 centimeters of fresh snow in the eastern and southern low mountain ranges and on the edge of the Alps.
In the night to Sunday, the snowfall spreads to the entire eastern half, especially in the low mountain ranges it should snow heavily. On the coast, the snow sometimes mixes with rain. According to the DWD, the temperatures drop to minus one to minus ten degrees.
On Sunday, the snowfall will continue in some areas, but will gradually weaken. In the night to Monday it should still snow, especially in the west and southwest as well as in the east. Temperatures will drop to between minus one and minus eight degrees and smoothness is expected again. At the start of the new week there will only be isolated snow showers, the temperatures will rise a little.