Coach crash in Germany. Polish coach... many dead

can't say much at the moment.... news coming in.... eleven dead.

all Polish news sources have pictures, info. onet.pl tvn24 etc

A tragic end to a holiday...sad news...

There seems to be quite a lot of Polish buses crashing around the place , quite often with loss of life , how good is the driver training for coach drivers in Poland..???

It seems in this case the bus may have been forced to take evasive action aftet a car driver cut in front to exit the motorway....

If i was driving a coach full of people i don,t think i would be swerving to avoid a car and putting passengers lives at risk , the car driver would be the one to suffer....

I hope they caught the guy who caused this....

in english: bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11414139

So sorry...it's raining cats and dogs here for awhile now...not a good weather for driving.

spiegel.de/panorama/gesellschaft/0,1518,719653,00.html

They write it had been mainly youth in this bus on their way to Frankfurt/Oder.
An inquiry office for Poles had been opened...

unfortunately: twelve people are now confirmed dead.

bild.de/BILD/news/2010/09/26/schwerer-busunfall/bei-potsdam-mehrere-schwerverletzte-tote.html

It seems the car driver lost control joining the motorway , and crashed into the bus , causing it to lose control too...It hit a bridge support...

There has been a few bus crashes due to driver error , or badly maintained buses , but it seems this crash was not the fault of the bus driver...

It was already confirmed on TV by German police.

Anyway, interesting comment from the German Bild.de:
Schwere Unfälle polnischer Reisebusse gibt es immer wieder - im Ausland und in Polen selbst. Ein schlechter technischer Zustand der Fahrzeuge, Übermüdung der Fahrer und überhöhte Geschwindigkeit gelten oft als Ursachen.

One has to be a real *********** to refer to the bad technical shape of Polish buses in clear case like that !

Yes, I found it abit unpassend too, in a moment like this... :(

Well , there has been a few crashes due to badly maintained buses , but there is no reason to suspect this was the cause of this crash....

Bild writes that a Mercedes wanted to drive up from the A113 to the A10...there doesn't seem anything wrong with that in principle (the driver, a woman, is badly hurt too).

The driver of the bus wanted to evase but both crashed together and the bus then crashed full into the side rail.

Maybe one of them saw the other to late or so...?

Like i stated before 2010 is an unlucky year for Poland.

This is indeed a sad day in Poland...

Look BB, I know A10/A113 junction like the back of my hand and there is nothing special about it, even by rainy weather. All you need is to to observe the right of way.

Sunday driver versus long-distance operator make rather a clear case too.

BTW.Springer's Bild is number 1 in Germany !.

Prejudices are hard to erase. That's typical. Unfortunately accusations are fast made. That's what is embarrassing.

This was a very sad and tragical accident.

I am sorry to have to say it , but the fact is that Polands vehicle safety standards are not as high as they are in Germany... In Germany you can,t get away with driving down the road with a cracked rear light without getting pulled and fined , but in Poland you can drive your tractor with its wobbling wheels . missing lights , and overloaded trailor without any problem..

Last winter i drove a Maluch from Poznan to my home that would have got me ten years in jail if i had driven it in Germany , and getting caught in a Honda with absolutly no exhaust system resulted in the cops telling me to take it home , and not to drive it any more untill it was fixed....

Some of the cars i see on the roads around my village are clearly not roadworthy , and i imagine tales in the newspapers in Germany of unroadworthy Polish cars being stopped soon get around...it does not take long to get a bad reputation.. Recently the British traffic Police expressed concern at the number of Polish trucks they were checking that were not safe to be on the roads....Add to this the accidents involving Polish tour busses that have crashed due to poor maintenance and its easy to see how this idea that all Poles drive unsafe cars becomes a fact...

However , for a German newspaper to make such a comment about an accident where people have been killed , and all the evidence points to a German motorist being at fault is not at all helpfull . and they should be made to apolagise...

It sounds to me like this German lady put her foot down in a powerfull Merc , trying to beat this bus as she joined the motorway , and lost control of it in front of the bus....

There is no evidence that the bus was faulty in any way , or that the driver made any mistake... It may have been better if the driver had tried to brake , rather than swerving the bus , but i guess he just did his best to avoid the accident...

Just saw a piece on ZDF...Some interesting comments. German rescue worker talking about saddness for the tragedy that took so many lives of our Polish neighbors. Tusk looking visably shaken thanking the work of the first responders (in German, which isn't too shabby by the way), and the TV remind us that it's a time of mourning for Poles and Germans alike. Tragedy is tragedy.

Its sad when anyone dies..but its much harder to deal with when its young people who have not yet begun to have a life...

R.I.P.

↓Road fatalities
per 100,000
inhabitants
per year

Ireland 7.8

Germany 5.5

Poland 14.7

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate

On the tv they had emergency numbers for relatives... one was German , one was in Warsaw , and the other was for Zlocieniec....Zlocieniec is the small town near to where i live , i have many friends there..is this where the coach was from....anyone know...??

Try to call?

I will be in this town tomorow...so if anyone i knew was on board i shall no doubt hear about it...

Its only a small town , where everyone knows each other...

*hugs wildrover*

I'm squeezing my thumbs for you!

Very sad. Condolences to the families of all involved.

It seems the people on this coach were from the town near me , they were forestry workers and their families returning from their annual holiday in Spain...The forestry office is next to where i used to work , the head of the forestry workers lives on the next farm to mine...

Its almost certain i will know some of these people , and there will be much sadness in the town of Zlocieniec...

As i said , its a small town where everyone knows everyone , it will affect a lot of people...

I'm so sorry!

I think the number of people killed would have been higher if it wasn,t for the swift and efficient response of the German rescue services..most of the badly injured were flown to hospital very quickly by helicopter...

Lets hope that those who are injured all survive and make a good recovery...

Some friends of mine from this town are in a great rock band called roadside blues , they are forestry workers , but i have no idea if they were on this trip or not...

Dam...i have lost more friends in road accidents during the five years i have lived in Poland than in the previous fifty years in the UK...!