weather condition
Black ice: Germany slips into the Christmas week
A gritting vehicle is on the road in Solingen when there is black ice. photo
© Gianni Gattus/Blaulicht Aktuell Solingen/dpa
At the start of the week it is dangerously slippery almost everywhere in Germany. There are hundreds of accidents, dozens of flight cancellations. In some places, schools, parks and Christmas markets remain closed.
Rainy transition from frost to plus degrees: Dangerous black ice hit large parts of Germany at the start of the week before Christmas. The German Weather Service (DWD) temporarily issued a severe weather warning for parts of all federal states.
At noon, a storm warning was still in effect for all eastern federal states as well as Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein. Roads and rails could be impassable in places. Approaching rain leads to an acute danger of black ice on frozen ground. As a precaution, classes were canceled in many schools, parks, zoos and Christmas markets remained closed, and there were hundreds of car accidents.
The DWD advised to avoid being outdoors as much as possible. Anyone who has to be out and about by car on Monday should adjust their driving style on the road. In addition, the DWD advised motorists to fill up their tanks and take blankets and warm drinks with them.
Many accidents, bus service stopped
A 25-year-old died on the A27 near Walsrode (Lower Saxony) at around 3.30 a.m. His car left the road because it was slippery, broke through the guardrail and crashed into a tree. In the Hanover region, in the district of Peine and in the city of Bremen, there were numerous slippery accidents during rush-hour traffic. In Saxony-Anhalt, two cars slid against a house wall in Gerbstedt, and in Eisleben a public transport bus crashed into a car.
16 people were injured in a bus accident on a slippery road in Dreieich near Offenbach near Frankfurt. The bus left the road on Monday morning due to black ice and hit a tree. The bus driver and 15 passengers between the ages of 15 and 50 suffered minor injuries and bruises.
In Munich, a tram jumps off the rails
In the area of the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund (RMV), bus services have been partially stopped completely. In Frankfurt, all bus lines as well as subways and trams are affected, the transport company VGF announced. At Germany’s largest airport in Frankfurt, processes got out of step. According to an airport spokeswoman, around 190 of the around 1,100 take-offs and landings planned for Monday were canceled by noon.
Deutsche Bahn temporarily lowered the maximum speed of its trains due to freezing rain and ice formation. The Harzer Schmalspurbahnen (HSB) stopped the train service between Schierke and the Brocken for the whole of Monday due to the stormy weather. In Munich, a tram jumped off the tracks due to the weather conditions. Firefighters also used muscle power to get the tram back on the rails.
It was also as smooth as glass in Hamburg
In Thuringia, a spokeswoman for the situation center said there was a high number of accidents across the country. In Bavaria, it was especially smooth in Franconia: According to the police, a number of pedestrians slipped in Nuremberg. According to the fire brigade, reports in Berlin that people had fallen increased on Monday afternoon.
The University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) reported in the afternoon that there had already been more than 60 trauma patients after black ice accidents involving pedestrians or cyclists.
In several districts and cities in Lower Saxony and also in Bremen, face-to-face teaching at schools was cancelled. In Osnabrück and in the district of Wolfenbüttel, garbage collectors stayed in the yard in the morning.
Black ice and storms also led to accidents during the night in the most populous federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. In Meinerzhagen (Märkischer Kreis), the driver of a gritter was slightly injured when it overturned. In Kierspe, also in the Märkisches Kreis, a driver slipped when getting out after hitting a garbage can with his car. In NRW, however, the situation eased again from 5 a.m., for example in the Ruhr area, so that many commuters were not aware of the black ice.