In Baden-Württemberg, a serious accident occurs during a test drive with an autonomous vehicle. One person dies, nine others are seriously injured. The traffic police in Tübingen should now clarify why the BMW got into oncoming traffic.
An autonomous test vehicle was involved in the serious accident with one dead and nine seriously injured on the B28. Whether the vehicle was driven by the 43-year-old driver or not is the subject of the investigation and is currently unknown, a police spokesman said. The cause of the accident is still unclear.
On Monday afternoon, the 43-year-old was driving the autonomous BMW e-test vehicle near Römerstein in the Reutlingen district. In a curve, the car steered into the oncoming lane for reasons that were not yet clear and grazed an oncoming car there. The 70-year-old driver then crashed her car head-on into the car of a 32-year-old. The man's car left the roadway and immediately caught fire.
The electric test car then crashed head-on into another car. The 32-year-old driver of the car suffered fatal injuries from the violent impact. According to the police, there were two men aged 31 and 47 in the 43-year-old's car, as well as a 42-year-old and a one-and-a-half-year-old child. Like the other drivers and two 33-year-old passengers in two of the other vehicles involved, they were taken to hospitals with serious injuries.
The Tübingen traffic police have started investigations together with an expert. The rescue service was on site with four rescue helicopters and ten ambulances. In addition, 80 firefighters with 15 emergency vehicles moved out.
The federal highway 28 was completely blocked for several hours as a result of the accident. The police estimate the damage to the vehicles involved at around 180,000 euros.
