Onset of winter
Dead in ice accidents in the north – pile-up on the Autobahn 6
On the Autobahn 6 near Amberg, a total of 20 cars were involved in nine accidents over a section of about one kilometer
© Vifogra / vifogra / DPA
Slippery roads have led to traffic accidents all over Germany. 20 cars drove into each other on a freeway in Bavaria. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Lower Saxony, people died in accidents on the ice.
Because of the slippery winter roads, many motorists in the north and south of Germany have been involved in road accidents. At least two people have died since Thursday afternoon and many more were injured. In a majority of the cases, people got away with a shock and sheet metal damage.
But there were also deaths. A 19-year-old driver died in a collision between two cars in the Mecklenburg Lake District. The driver of the other car was seriously injured. The two people involved in the accident had collided head-on in their vehicles in a bend on a slippery winter country road near Reinberg for reasons that have not yet been clarified.
Fatal accident in family car
In another serious traffic accident in the Lower Saxony district of Stade, a 15-year-old was killed in the afternoon. Presumably her father, who drove the car, had lost control of the five-person vehicle due to the slippery road surface. It skidded, came off the road, hit a tree, and tumbled off the side of the road. The driver, his two children aged 4 and 8 and a 15-year-old boy were brought to clinics, some with serious injuries, according to police.
In addition, at least 190 traffic accidents were recorded in Schleswig Holstein alone after snowfall. Until late in the evening, Stormarn, the Duchy of Lauenburg, Ostholstein and Lübeck were particularly affected – there were almost 70 accidents caused by ice, as a police spokesman said. “Almost all sheet metal damage, few slightly injured.”
But the snow didn’t just hit drivers hard – train travelers also had to prepare for the winter weather in Schleswig-Holstein. In long-distance and regional traffic, for example, it caused train cancellations and delays. Deutsche Bahn is assuming that the train service will start operating on Friday without any hindrances, said a railway spokesman.
Bulky pile on the A6 in Bavaria
Further south in the Upper Palatinate in Bavaria it was also slippery. On the Autobahn 6 near Amberg, a total of 20 cars were involved in nine accidents over a section of about one kilometer. Six people were slightly injured and taken to hospitals. The A6 was opened in both directions again after being temporarily closed. In nearby Regensburg, a bus drove into parked cars.
Around 45 traffic accidents were also recorded in Lower Bavaria. One person was injured moderately and the rest only caused property damage, as the police announced. Three streets were closed because they were not passable due to the slippery ice.