Photo: DPA
At least eight people died Friday in a huge blaze on a motorway in eastern Germany after a freak sandstorm caused pile-ups, police said. Strong winds blew sand and earth onto the four-lane A19 autobahn near Rostock in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state, severely hindering visibility for motorists and causing accidents in both directions.
Northbound, three lorries and 17 cars slammed into each other and were engulfed in flames, possibly caused by chemicals on one of the trucks catching fire, police said.
A spokesman said the toll could still rise, as rescue workers were still searching for bodies in the smoking, mangled wreckage.
And after Fukushima and Angela Merkel’s knee-jerk reaction in ordering older German nuclear plants to be shut down, one reader commented:
Interesting – more persons died in a crash on a German highway than have been killed by the nuclear emergency in Japan. Need to close the highways, I think.
The k2p blog 