Police said the 58-year-old driver of an articulated lorry lost control of his vehicle at around 6.40am for reasons which are yet unknown. Shortly after the Bad Honnef/Linz junction, the lorry loaded with flowers drifted to the left and crashed through the concrete wall in the middle of the road. The driver’s cab jack-knifed and the trailer became propped on the concrete wall. According to initial inquiries, the lorry’s tank was damaged in the crash and the vehicle caught fire. The fire then spread to the trailer, which was also seriously damaged. According to reports, the driver and his 59-year-old co-driver managed to get out of the vehicle and to safety away from the flames. Rescue services treated the seriously injured men at the scene of the accident and then took them to hospital.

A total of 60 personnel from the fire brigades in Bad Honnef and Königswinter also attended the scene of the accident. Units in Ittenbach and Oelberg as well as the emergency response service of the voluntary fire brigade in Königswinter were alerted at 6.55am. Since it proved difficult to supply water to fight the fire on site, the Königswinter service’s water transport truck was used, which holds 14,000 litres of water.

While the operation was over for the fire fighters at around 5pm, the carriageway then had to be cleaned and copious amounts of debris removed. Towing companies removed the burned out truck and trailer using a crane. The police first re-opened the motorway at 6.30pm. The Cologne transport commissioner’s office has already started investigating the exact cause of the accident.

(Original text: Heike Hamann and Michael Wrobel. Translation: kc)