Traffic
Onset of winter and ice accidents in Bavaria
There was a pile-up involving 22 vehicles on the A70 near Schirradorf in Bavaria. photo
© Pia Bayer/dpa
Winter in April: Snow, sleet and lightning ice hit the Free State at the weekend – with consequences on the roads.
Winter weather in April: lightning ice, snow, sleet and sleet showers are in Bavaria made for an uncomfortable weekend – and in places there was chaos on the streets. Two mass accidents on Bavarian motorways caused damage of up to 600,000 euros.
Due to a mass accident following lightning ice, Autobahn 8 south of Munich was completely closed for several hours on Saturday. According to police, there was an accident involving eight vehicles at midday near Bernauer Berg due to weather conditions. Because cars and car parts were thrown into the oncoming lane, the A8 had to be closed in both directions for some time. The highway was completely reopened around 4 p.m. No one was injured in the mass accident, a police spokesman said. The police estimate the damage at 200,000 to 250,000 euros.
15 people were injured in a pile-up in slippery conditions on Autobahn 70 in Upper Franconia. According to a police spokeswoman, 29 vehicles, including cars and a long-distance bus, were involved in the accident on Saturday morning. 14 vehicles were involved on the road towards Bamberg and 15 in the opposite direction to Bayreuth, including, according to police, a truck and a coach.
The police cited “heavy rain and hail combined with excessive speed” and insufficient safety distance as the cause of the accident. According to initial estimates, the amount of damage is between 250,000 and 300,000 euros.
A large number of emergency services were on site, including 130 firefighters, six emergency doctors and 70 paramedics. Three rescue helicopters and a police helicopter were in use, as well as 15 ambulances. 32 people were looked after and cared for at the Thurnau fire station. The A70 was closed in both directions between Schirradorf and Thurnau-West.
On the A94 between the Pastetten and Lengdorf junctions in Upper Bavaria, a heavy hailstorm suddenly set in in the afternoon and the roads were covered in white within seconds, as the Hohenbrunn traffic police station announced. Several cars skidded in the direction of Passau and two cars ended up in a ditch. Another car slid against another car. There was also an accident in the same place on the opposite lane: a car slipped and hit the right guardrail. There was a total damage of around 55,000 euros, it was said. Nobody got hurt. The right lane in the direction of Passau was closed for around two hours.
Two drivers were seriously injured in a head-on collision on a rain-soaked road in Swabia. A 20-year-old drove his car into the opposite lane in a long right-hand bend near Eppishausen (Unterallgäu district), as the police announced on Saturday. His vehicle collided head-on with the oncoming car of a 58-year-old.