Weather
The onset of winter brings traffic into a tailspin
A car left the road during heavy snowfall and crashed into a tree between Deschka and Zentendorf IN the municipality of Neißeaue in the Görlitz district. photo
© Danilo Dittrich/dpa
Snow and slippery conditions have caused chaotic conditions in parts of Germany. “We receive reports of new accidents on the highways every minute,” it is said in Berlin.
Accidents, slips, school cancellations: The The onset of winter with snow and ice on roads and sidewalks has affected traffic in many parts of Germany and resulted in numerous rescue operations. At least two people died: In the Schwäbisch Hall district, a 71-year-old man died in a head-on collision on a snowy road on Monday evening. A 54-year-old driver died in a black ice accident near Denzerheide (Rhineland-Palatinate).
Snowfall and sub-zero temperatures also caused road users in the capital region of Berlin/Brandenburg to skid. “We receive reports of new accidents on the motorways every minute,” said the Berlin traffic information center on the online platform X, formerly Twitter.
Delays and train cancellations on the railway
The snow caused delays and train cancellations on a number of railway routes, for example on the Berlin S-Bahn and on the train route between Hanover, Hildesheim and Göttingen. There is snow on the overhead lines, a spokeswoman for Deutsche Bahn said here – the device is in use and traffic is being rerouted. There were train cancellations and discontinued bus services in the Taunus region of Hesse, for example.
Also in Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate, the police called for careful driving in view of further predicted snowfalls and slippery conditions: “It is also now more than necessary for vehicles to have weather-adapted tires and, if ignored, will result in severe fines.”
People are rescued from vehicles
Accidents occurred in many parts of Hesse, resulting in injuries and a lot of property damage. Trees fell due to the weight of the snow. The situation was particularly dire in the Rheingau-Taunus district: According to the fire department, numerous drivers were stuck in their vehicles. Around 100 people had to be rescued from their cars near Eltville due to falling trees. They were initially housed in a hall. In the evening, 20 to 25 people stayed in hotels.
According to a statement, the district administrator in the Rheingau-Taunus district, Sandro Zehner (CDU), called for people to stay at home: “My urgent appeal: Be sure to stay at home on Tuesday. Please do not go for walks in the forest either: there is an acute danger to your life Broken branches and falling trees.”
Children have to stay overnight at school
In Wiesbaden, 55 people, including 27 children, had to spend the night in a school. The fire department set up accommodation in the school building because school buses were no longer running due to the weather conditions, a fire department spokesman said. At times, 30 students and teachers were stuck in a comprehensive school in Bad Schwalbach. They were treated but were brought home by the fire department late on Monday evening. Due to the onset of winter, numerous streets around the Hesse state capital Wiesbaden had to be completely closed.
A driver on the A2 in North Rhine-Westphalia was extremely lucky: in the area of the Gütersloh junction he came off the road and overturned, as the Bielefeld police announced on Tuesday morning. The driver was only slightly injured in the accident on Monday and did not have to go to hospital.
Due to a truck accident, Autobahn 3 near Wörth in Lower Bavaria was closed for hours overnight.
More fun in the winter sports areas
The onset of winter also has its positive sides: winter sports fans can hope for better conditions in the Thuringian Forest, for example. The regional association said that ten kilometers of cross-country skiing routes have already been prepared there. In the morning, the regional association reported snow depths of up to 40 centimeters.
And children can look forward to a day off from school at several schools in the Lower Franconian district of Main-Spessart. The reason for this was fallen trees and poor traffic on the roads, according to the district office.
“Polar cold air floods the entire country”
According to meteorologists, winter is settling in in Germany, already in the last days of November. A low pressure area over southern Germany is quickly shifting eastward – “behind it, polar cold air is flooding the entire country,” predicted the experts from the German Weather Service in Offenbach on Tuesday morning. They are forecasting further mostly light to moderate snowfall for several parts of the country up to the north and the Baltic Sea.
It will be quite cold in some places: On Wednesday night, in higher low mountain ranges in the east and southeast, it can occasionally get around minus 10 degrees – although there will be “slippery snow and freezing wetness in many places,” according to the weather service. There can be a particularly lot of snow on Wednesday in the Harz Mountains and in a strip from the Emsland to the Weserbergland, with amounts of up to 15 centimeters in 6 hours not being ruled out.