Photo: DPA

Snow causes massive A20 pileup near Lübeck

Published: 13 Oct 09 11:29 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/national/20091013-22535.html

Snow caused a massive 18-car pileup on the A20 motorway east of Lübeck on Tuesday morning, as the first wintry weather of the season hit broad swaths of Germany.

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The huge accident occurred near Bobitz in northwestern Mecklenburg and forced the closure of the autobahn heading towards Lübeck, police reported. Five cars were involved in another wreck going the other direction, but authorities were able to divert traffic around it.

“It's absolute chaos,” said a spokesman for the autobahn police in nearby Wismar.

He said the motorists, two of whom suffered minor injuries, were unprepared for the slippery driving conditions.

Early in the morning, the German Weather Service (DWD) had forecast that many parts of the country would see the first signs of winter on Tuesday, with the snowfall limit dropping to lower elevations.

Four centimetres of snow fell upon the Brocken, the highest mountain in northern Germany and the white stuff also covered the Fichtelberg in the state of Saxony.

Snow is also likely in the Alps and low mountain ranges in the south and east of the country as Arctic air sweeps through the country with frosty temperatures, the DWD said.

“During the day with highs of three to seven degrees Celsius, one will need a thick jacket, though gloves and hat are optional,” meteorologist Jens Hoffmann said from the DWD headquarters in Offenbach.

Current chilly temperatures will likely stick around until the weekend, but they won’t be cold enough to allow for heavy snowfall, he added.

Click here for The Local's weather forecast.

DDP/DPA/The Local (news@thelocal.de)

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Your comments about this article:

10:01 October 13, 2009 by HerrDinksbumps
'09 has actually been pretty good.. I think we had a good, early spring, and a nice late summer.. June or July - one of those - sucked.. But, as somebody chronically sensitive to the lack of sun in Germany, overall I feel good about the weather in Germany for this year..

October is getting off to a horrible start.. I feel like a soldier who's been on a great carefree holiday away from the horrors of trench warfare, and now this huge cloud of gloomy darkness is looming in front of me, inexorable, and the dreaded time has come again, to head back to the bleak dark wet front, to squat in damp black misery til the sun hopefully comes up again some day - in the distant spring next year.. Not looking forward to it..
12:56 October 13, 2009 by Otto Von Vegas
"Snow causes massive A20 pileup" incorrect, should read something like "bad driving causes massive A20 pileup". I've seen so many people driving too fast in treacherous conditions that it doesn't come as a surprise that they sometimes crash. Glad nobody was hurt though, it should serve as a wake up call for the rest of us...
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