Mirror-smooth roads caused numerous accidents across Germany on Sunday, including a dramatic incident in Lower Saxony where a car was struck by a regional train. The driver was intoxicated with alcohol and under the influence of cannabis but sustained no injuries. The German Weather Service continues to warn of black ice in many regions.
The icy chaos persisted across much of Germany on Sunday, December 27, leading to intense operations by police and fire services. Saxony and Hesse were particularly affected, with police counting 32 accidents in Saxony early in the morning. In St. Egidien in the Zwickau district, a driver collided with a traffic sign on slippery roads but remained uninjured. The previous evening, a 61-year-old in Central Saxony overturned multiple times on the S34 near Großweitzschen and was taken to the hospital with light injuries. A local bus slid into a house wall in Mittweida, tearing scaffolding from its anchors.
The most striking accident occurred in Bad Gandersheim in the Northeim district of Lower Saxony. On Saturday evening around 9 p.m., a car veered off the road in a sharp curve on winter-slick conditions, likely due to excessive speed, hit a traffic light, and came to rest with its rear on the tracks. A regional train struck the vehicle, although the driver initiated emergency braking; the train stopped only after about 400 meters. Neither the car driver nor the train passengers were injured. Police found the driver intoxicated with alcohol and under the influence of cannabis; his license was confiscated, and he is being investigated for endangering road traffic.
Further incidents occurred in the Celle district with eight black ice-related accidents on Saturday morning, including a 21-year-old woman in Hohne who crashed into a tree and ended up with her car on its roof but escaped uninjured. Two more accidents with property damage followed on Sunday morning. In Rinteln, police could not reach all sites due to the flood of crashes; within four hours, nine vehicles, a traffic sign, and a wall were damaged, with no injuries. In Wehrbleck-Strange, a car overturned, and the driver fled.
In North Rhine-Westphalia, the Minden-Lübbecke district reported 16 accidents, with one participant injured. In Hesse, a 19-year-old crashed severely in Schenklengsfeld with his passenger, and an 18-year-old in southern Hesse hit a tree while overtaking.
The German Weather Service (DWD) warned of high black ice risk in central regions due to drizzle that freezes, with morning temperatures from 0 to -5°C, colder in the south. Daytime highs reached 0 to 4°C, up to 6°C on coasts. The night will be bitterly cold with -3 to -9°C, locally -13°C. Caution remains advised for Monday, with snow in mountains and rain in the north.
The chaos had already begun on Saturday and Friday: A pile-up on the A1 near Wildeshausen lightly injured five people, and a mother and her baby overturned in Cloppenburg. In Berlin and Potsdam, slips on icy sidewalks overloaded emergency rooms; the Charité treated over 200 patients on Saturday for bone fractures in hips, arms, and shoulders. A spokesperson described it as a "mass influx of injured." On Friday, a 73-year-old woman died in a crash near Hessisch Lichtenau in Hesse.
In the Lübeck, Ostholstein, and Lauenburg areas, police also reported numerous accidents due to black ice, including several cars veering off the road and one driver with 1.66 promille blood alcohol.
