Two vehicles were involved in the accident. The 47-year-old driver of a VW Golf swerved off the road to the right after being rear-ended and was then thrown back from the embankment onto the autobahn. The driver, from Rhein-Sieg-County, died of his injuries at the scene. The other motorist was a 71-year-old from Bavaria; he was slightly injured and suffered from shock. He had been driving a rented transport van and came to a standstill on the shoulder of the road a few meters from where the accident occurred.

Emergency services personnel used thermal imaging cameras to search for other people because they couldn’t rule out at first that children had been involved in the accident. “But this was not the case,” said Sascha Lienesch, spokesperson for the volunteer fire department in Sankt Augustin.

Motorists on the autobahn were quick to form a rescue lane so that emergency vehicles could reach the accident scene swiftly. Besides police, fire department and rescue service vehicles, a rescue helicopter was also alerted.

The congested traffic conditions which led to the accident were caused by the combination of a broken down truck on the middle lane of the A3 and another truck which was stuck at the roundabout at the Siebengebirge/Königswinter exit.

The exact chain of events that led to the accident is still being investigated. Police had to block off the autobahn entirely until late at night. Those who had already been in the traffic jam were directed in one lane past the location of the accident.

(Orig. text: Alexander Hertel; Translation: ck)