A devastating accident occurs on Autobahn 4. An 82-year-old driver drives in the wrong direction on the Autobahn and hits an oncoming car head-on. Both occupants die at the scene of the accident.
A wrong-way driver accident on Autobahn 4 near Meerane in Saxony killed two people. According to initial findings by the police, an 82-year-old had driven in the wrong direction onto the Autobahn (Erfurt-Dresden) at the Glauchau-Ost junction. After about ten kilometers, her car crashed head-on into an oncoming vehicle. Both the elderly woman and the driver of the other car died in the accident near the Saxony-Thuringia border. Other people were not in the cars, it said.
A police spokeswoman spoke of a devastating picture at the scene of the accident. According to eyewitnesses, the impact of the collision ripped the engines of both vehicles out of the car. One of the vehicles overturned and ended up on the side of the freeway. Any help came too late for either person. The bodies had to be removed from the wreckage by firefighters using heavy equipment. A rescue helicopter was also deployed. The exact identity of the man who died in the accident is still unclear, according to police.
The autobahn was closed after the accident and traffic was diverted to the Schmölln junction. Around noon, the drivers who were already in the traffic jam were able to turn their vehicles around under police supervision and drive back to the Schmölln exit. The rescue of the accident vehicles and the cleaning of the road would take several hours, said the police spokeswoman. According to the information, the further investigations into the exact course of the accident are ongoing. There are experts on site. The police could not give an indication of the speed of the two vehicles. They were said to have been traveling at very high speed on the three-lane route.
Just a few days before Christmas, there was a similar tragedy on the A38 in northern Thuringia. According to the police, an 80-year-old had driven his car on the lane leading to Leipzig - but in the direction of Göttingen. He is said to have driven from a parking lot in the wrong direction onto the freeway. After three kilometers there was a collision with another car in which a man and a woman were sitting. Both died, as did the 80-year-old.
