Coach accident with five dead and over 20 injured, near Leipzig. “It went black in front of my eyes,” says one traveler

On Wednesday morning, a serious traffic accident occurred on the A9, near Leipzig, involving a Flixbus coach. According to the police, five people died and 20 others were injured. Rescue operations continued throughout the day. The freeway, in both directions, was blocked for several hours.

A crane is still at the scene, a police spokeswoman said Wednesday evening. The motorway in the direction of Munich was completely closed. It initially remained unclear when the blockade would be lifted.

According to the information of the “Bild” newspaper, there were mostly young passengers in the coach. The route was from Berlin to Switzerland. Flixbus said there were 53 passengers and two drivers on board. According to the company, the driver of the Flixbus bus that crashed on the A9 near Leipzig would have respected all driving and rest times.

“There were two drivers on board, the duty driver had been driving the bus since it left Berlin at 8am,” a spokesman told Antenne Bayern radio on Wednesday. Both drivers survived the crash. An eyewitness, however, gives details about their behavior.

Black before the eyes

Sadaf Bahadury was sitting in Flixbus with her three children (4,6,9 years old) when the tragic accident happened. She originally wanted to visit her relatives in Switzerland, but spent the day in the emergency room of the clinic in Delitzsch in northern Saxony. In an interview with the “Leipziger Volkszeitung”, she says about the trip that it started with emotions, because the driver got lost and had to brake hard.

During the trip, she says the driver repeatedly talked loudly with his colleague. “All of a sudden we were thrown back and forth, and then my eyes went black,” Bahadury says, describing the moment of the crash. When he recovered, the bus was already overturned. The eldest son then searched desperately for the other two children and discovered that his siblings were sitting upside down in their chairs.

“We all wear seat belts, maybe that was our luck,” says Bahadury. Fortunately, the mother suffered only minor injuries in the accident. And her three children were lucky. “I got help quickly here, the nurses and doctors took care of me and my children.” The woman was able to leave the clinic in the evening, together with her three children, but the shock is still deep.

Occasional firefighters

Part of the luck was that shortly after the accident, a group of Saarland firemen returning from a trip to Berlin happened to pass by the accident site. They immediately rushed to help the wounded without hesitation.

“Before the official emergency services arrived at the scene of the accident, the group administered first aid and attended to the injured. They freed the people from the bus, divided them into categories and divided them into lightly injured and seriously injured,” Wiedemar fire chief Nicole Fischer told Bild. Thanks to the quick intervention, they were able to carry out important preparations, for the rescue teams, arrived a little later.

Clinics in the area had prepared for large-scale operations. The emergency room was alerted and operating theaters and diagnostic rooms were prepared for arriving patients, a spokesman for the Diakonissen Hospital in Leipzig said. Eleven injured people were treated at Leipzig University Hospital, including one seriously, a spokesman said in the afternoon. He is being treated in the intensive care unit.

Condolences from the authorities

The Interior Minister of Saxony, Armin Schuster (CDU) received an overview of the accident. He expressed his condolences to the families of those who died on Wednesday. Additionally, “I hope the injured get well soon.” Schuster thanked the rescuers for their professional efforts. It was a “difficult situation” that was “handled excellently”.

After the serious bus accident, the Federal Minister of Transport, Volker Wissing, expressed his condolences to the victims and survivors. “This affects us deeply,” the FDP politician told the Welt TV news channel on Wednesday.

“Such accidents are shocking. Our thoughts are with the relatives of the victims and of course with all those affected and we wish the injured a speedy recovery,” continued Wissing. “Unfortunately, such accidents are always very shocking and affect us a lot,” he added.