VN24 - 27.11.2020 - Hamm / Germany - A serious accident paralyzed the A2 highway near Hamm in the afternoon, initially in the eastbound direction. During the recovery work, there was another accident on the oncoming lane westbound.
1st accident
According to initial findings, a 39-year-old Lithuanian was driving his vehicle transporter truck eastbound on the A2 toward Hannover at around 1:50 pm. Shortly before the Hamm-Uentrop junction, the vehicle transporter suffered a tire blowout on the right lane. The 39-year-old steered his vehicle transporter onto the hard shoulder and stopped there. A following 44-year-old tractor-trailer driver, had to stop his vehicle therefore to the standstill, as well as a 52-year-old driver of a mobile home could stop behind it on the right lane.
For reasons not yet clear, a 42-year-old tractor-trailer driver with a refrigerated trailer overlooked the situation and initially hit the motor home from behind. As a result of the impact, the motor home was flung to the left across the middle and left-hand lanes against the central crash barrier. The driver who caused the accident then collided with the tractor-trailer of the 44-year-old in front of him, causing the cab of the truck to detach and tip forward. At the same time, a 45-year-old woman following in her VW car in the middle lane had to brake sharply due to the transverse mobile home. An 18-year-old female driver was also unable to stop her car in time and hit the 45-year-old's car. Another vehicle was damaged by parts of the debris.
The 42-year-old truck driver and presumed causer of the accident was seriously injured in the accident. An ambulance rushed him to a hospital. Fortunately, all others involved suffered only minor injuries.
2nd accident (in the video minute 21:35 - 24:21)
During the extensive salvage work in the eastbound direction, curious onlookers ( gaffers) repeatedly caused traffic jams on the oncoming lane westbound in the direction of Dortmund. In the late afternoon, a very serious rear-end collision involving more than 7 vehicles apparently occurred as a result of sightseers braking their vehicles sharply to see what was going on in the oncoming lane. Five people were injured in this incident.
The salvage work on the trucks had to be interrupted. Philipp and longhaired Karl, a 12-year employee of the Horstmann Recovery Service, and the whole recovery crew jumped over the center guardrails, helped the injured out of their vehicles, provided first aid, and directed the blocked traffic through the accident site so that firefighters and rescue services could reach the scene.
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