Weather
Black ice on roads and sidewalks
In Berlin, too, sidewalks and streets were partially icy for hours. The fire department spoke of a state of emergency. photo
© Jörg Carstensen/dpa
Drizzle and freezing temperatures are making roads dangerously slippery in parts of Germany. In some places there are accidents. Most of the time there is damage to the sheet metal, but not in all cases.
Streets and sidewalks turn into dangerous slides: parts of them are black Germany led to many accidents. In Lower Saxony, a 29-year-old driver was killed when his car left the winter-slick road on the B213 near Bremen and collided sideways with a tree. That is what the police said. There were injuries in accidents in other parts of the country. There was no major chaos. The German Weather Service (DWD) had warned of slippery conditions. It coincided with the warning strike at Deutsche Bahn. In order to get to work, some people had to take the car or switch to cycling.
According to the DWD, the weather is only expected to ease as the day progresses. For some regions, the meteorologists had called in the morning to avoid unnecessary time outdoors and travel. Slippery roads had already hindered rush-hour traffic on Thursday.
Pedestrians and drivers had to allow significantly more time. According to the police, lightning ice led to more than 40 accidents in Kassel between Thursday evening and Friday morning. A total of four people were slightly injured. Near Koblenz, Autobahn 61 was closed for around two hours due to many accidents.
Dozens of traffic accidents in North Rhine-Westphalia
In North Rhine-Westphalia, too, there were dozens of traffic accidents with many injuries on roads that were sometimes slippery. Cyclists and motorcyclists fell in several regions. In Dortmund, a cyclist was so seriously injured in a fall on an icy road that doctors in the hospital were fighting for his life. Most car accidents result in sheet metal damage. In Dülmen in the north of the Ruhr area, six vehicles slid into each other – the occupants were slightly injured.
In Lower Saxony in the Hanover area, in Magdeburg in Saxony-Anhalt or in Saxony – the police responded several times because of vehicle accidents. In Berlin, sidewalks and side streets were partially icy for hours. According to their own information, the fire department responded more than 300 times on Thursday evening. Most of the people who fell had to be cared for, as a spokesman said.
According to the German Weather Service, pedestrians and drivers must continue to expect slippery conditions on Friday. The forecast at midday said: “Smooth areas in the north and in the center.”