In some places, the New Year's Eve escalates. There are many alcohol-related accidents and injuries caused by firecrackers. Head of the Clinic Association Gass reports full emergency admissions. And even days after New Year's Eve, serious incidents with firecrackers are still being reported.
The German Hospital Society (DKG) assumes that there will be significantly more accidents at the turn of the year than in 2020 and 2021. "Injuries from fireworks, but also alcohol-related accidents have led to the emergency rooms being full," said association leader Gerald Gass to the editorial network Germany (RND).
"The reports from the fire and rescue services and the bad news about deaths and serious injuries from fireworks suggest that we had significantly more accidents this New Year's Eve than in the past two years," added Gass. However, in 2020 and 2021, the sale of New Year's Eve fireworks to private individuals was prohibited in Germany due to the corona pandemic in order to relieve the already heavily used hospitals and emergency departments. In many places, however, there was a bang on a smaller scale – with fireworks bought abroad or leftovers from previous years.
From some federal states, the police reported serious incidents with firecrackers on the second day after New Year's Eve. In Upper Franconia, Bavaria, a firecracker exploded in the hand of an eleven-year-old and severed part of a finger. The child found the firecracker on a street in Hof and lit it, the police said. The injured boy ran home, an ambulance took him to a hospital.
The police also reported another case on Sunday, in which an eleven-year-old boy in Annaberg-Buchholz in Saxony suffered severe burns. The child had collected spent firecrackers and spilled the remains of gunpowder in a heap. When he ignited the mixture, there was a jet of flame about five feet high. A rescue helicopter took the boy to a clinic.
On New Year's Eve there were many accidents with fireworks across Germany: In Leipzig, a 17-year-old injured himself so badly on New Year's Eve when using pyrotechnics that he died in the hospital. In Saxony-Anhalt, a man was hit and killed by a car while banging on the street. A 42-year-old was so badly injured in Gotha while handling firecrackers ordered online that both forearms had to be amputated.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser rejects a general ban on firecrackers in Germany despite everything. "The existing law already offers extensive possibilities to ban or limit the burning of pyrotechnic objects," said a ministry spokeswoman. For example, there is already a general ban on firecrackers in the area of churches or retirement homes. In addition, the countries could set up ban zones.
