WRarely has the sentence “At the scene of the accident the emergency services were presented with a picture of horror” been so true as it was on the 247 federal highway near Bad Langensalza in western Thuringia late on Saturday afternoon. Two completely burned-out wrecked cars, one hanging halfway over a guard rail, and a completely destroyed third car that tipped on its side were seen on a long curve in the bypass. The road was burnt and littered with debris.
From the initially completely confusing situation, it became certain during the course of the evening that seven people died in the accident. Three other people were seriously injured, one of them was still in mortal danger on Sunday. This is one of the worst traffic accidents involving cars in Germany for many years.
The accident investigators and several experts continued their work on the closed road, some of which was severely damaged by the fire, on Sunday. According to initial findings, around 5:30 p.m., a BMW with a 45-year-old man at the wheel in the long curve hit oncoming traffic for reasons that have not yet been clarified and collided with tremendous force with a VW Caddy and a Mercedes.
Burnt out cars: On the federal highway 247 near Bad Langensalza, a BMW got into oncoming traffic.
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Image: dpa
These two vehicles immediately went up in flames, the newspaper “Thüringer Allgemeine” reported, citing the Nordhausen State Police Inspectorate. When rescuers arrived, both vehicles were still ablaze with black smoke drifting toward the city center. Authorities asked residents to keep windows and doors closed because of potentially toxic fumes.
According to investigators, five 19-year-old people died in the burning Mercedes alone. The 60-year-old driver died in the VW, while the 73-year-old passenger was able to save herself from the burning wreck. An occupant of the BMW, the vehicle believed to have caused the accident, also died in the rubble, while the driver and his 34-year-old passenger were taken to hospital with serious injuries. The latter was still in mortal danger on Sunday. The emergency services were only able to recover the bodies of the victims after the fires had been extinguished and the wrecks had cooled.
The overriding question on Sunday was how the devastating accident on the two-lane road could have happened and why two cars caught fire so quickly. The Nordhausen police asked on Sunday for witnesses, in particular where the BMW was seen before the accident.
As the police reported, referring to the first investigation results of the AFP news agency, a 45-year-old drove his car into oncoming traffic and collided with two oncoming vehicles. In the case of the man who survived the collision with serious injuries, “consumption of alcohol cannot be ruled out”. Therefore, the taking of a blood sample was ordered, the officials said. He was also “not in possession of a driver’s license”.
Thuringia’s Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (left) reacted shocked to the news of the accident via Twitter on Saturday. “I mourn the dead and feel for the relatives. So many lives wiped out in seconds. It remains bewildered.” State Interior Minister Georg Maier (SPD) thanked the rescue services for their commitment under these particularly difficult and stressful conditions. The terrible pictures would have a long-lasting effect, Maier wrote. “Our crisis intervention teams are on hand to help the emergency services deal with it.”
Thuringia’s Transport Minister Susanna Karawanskij (left) also expressed her condolences to the victims’ relatives and assured them that the causes of the accident would be carefully evaluated in order to be able to prevent similarly serious accidents in the future. Together with those responsible for this street, they will also investigate “criticism of the traffic space design”.