Winter in Germany: snow and ice hamper traffic

Black ice, snow and rain can cause traffic problems this morning. There were accidents during the night, but the snow chaos did not materialize. It should now warm up.

Drivers and pedestrians must be prepared for tough road conditions, black ice, rain, and snow. For the night, the German Weather Service had forecast freezing rain or drizzle with black ice in the east and south.

Police reported ice accidents overnight, but there was no snow chaos like last week.

Highway accidents, deaths on federal highways

Especially in northern Germany, snow and slippery roads severely hampered traffic on Monday and Tuesday nights. The A7 was closed for some time at night from the Göttingen junction to the Göttingen service station heading south. Vehicles from the highway maintenance department were in constant use, as announced by the police.

The A21 near Bad Oldesloe in Schleswig-Holstein was also blocked overnight. A truck had parked there and blocked both southbound lanes. The lock was lifted early in the morning.

A 54-year-old driver from Heidekreis was killed on the B71 between Hemslingen and Brockel. According to previous knowledge, a 29-year-old girl lost control of her car in the afternoon when the freezing rain began and ended up in the opposite lane. The woman was admitted to the hospital with serious injuries.

Hamburg Central Station is temporarily closed

In Hamburg, the main train station was closed for about two hours on Monday night. Shortly after 9 p.m., a train spokesperson said traffic was normalizing, but individual trains were still delayed. Hamburg’s S-Bahn had previously tweeted that the snowfall had caused switch outages and therefore there were restrictions on the entire S-Bahn network.

In Kiel, the KVG Kieler Verkehrsgesellschaft completely stopped traffic.

It’s getting hotter

Some snowfall is expected in the east and southeast of the country, which should quickly turn into rain and decrease in the course of the morning. The icy days are over for the moment: the reason is the foothills of a strong Atlantic depression, which little by little brings warmer sea air.