Crash in a ditch

Germany: Next serious accident involving a coach

The coach carrying a group of schoolchildren crashed into the ditch.

(Bild: APA/Daniel Schröder)

There was another serious coach accident in Germany on Friday night. This time, a group of students from a vocational college had an accident on their way back from a trip to England. Their double-decker coach left the highway near Werl in North Rhine-Westphalia, drove into the ditch and crashed onto its side. The result: more than 20 people injured.

According to the police, 21 of the 60 passengers were injured and one person suffered serious injuries. No one's life was in danger, they said.

On Wednesday morning, a coach left the road on the A9 near Leipzig and crashed onto its side - but with far worse consequences: Four people lost their lives. As with the new accident, no other vehicles were involved according to the information available so far. Investigations into the cause of the accident are still ongoing in both cases.

Bus overturned into the ditch
According to the police, the students from the vocational college in Warburg on the border with Hesse who have now been involved in the accident are young adults. It is still unclear whether only pupils or accompanying persons were injured. According to the police, the driver of the bus was uninjured and escaped with a scare despite the windshield being smashed.

+1

Fotos

After the accident, one side of the A44 was closed from the Unna Ost exit to Werl. According to the police, the closure was lifted again in the early morning. The police recovered the double-decker in the morning. The bus was righted, transported away and the road in the direction of Kassel was reopened, a police spokesperson said in the morning. In addition to the fire department, a rescue helicopter was also deployed.

Four dead in Flixbus accident
In a similar accident on Wednesday on the A9 in Saxony, a double-decker bus operated by the Flixbus travel company carrying 52 passengers and two drivers crashed into the grass verge and flipped onto its side. Four people died, six were seriously injured and 29 were slightly injured. The driver is being investigated for involuntary manslaughter and negligent bodily injury.

There have been a number of serious coach accidents in Germany in recent years. Nevertheless, coaches are a relatively safe means of transportation. According to accident statistics, they are comparatively rarely involved in road accidents with personal injury.