A child died in a serious bus accident in the Erzgebirge. According to police in Sehmatal, the bus collided sideways with a winter service vehicle on Tuesday morning and then crashed head-on into a tree. According to the Ministry of Culture, the children on the bus were primary school students. “This is bad news that hit me hard,” said Education Minister Christian Piwarz (CDU) to the German Press Agency. “My thoughts are with the injured children and their parents.”
The police also said the fatality was a student. Two adults, including the bus driver, were also seriously injured. Eleven other schoolchildren also suffered injuries, one of whom was receiving medical treatment in hospital at midday. Police did not release the age of the boy who was killed or the injured. The Ministry of Culture also did not want to provide any further details about the school out of consideration for the students.
The students who were uninjured were given psychological care in an after-school care center, the ministry said. The State Office for Schools and Education is also examining the need for further help. “We will offer the affected school and students all the support they need in this situation,” assured Piwarz.
According to the police’s initial assessment, the road was slippery at the time of the accident. The accident service is on site and is investigating, said a spokesman. The impact was so violent that the front two meters of the bus was completely destroyed.
Extremely slippery roads
On Tuesday morning, rain caused black ice on numerous roads in the high regions of Saxony. “In the morning, the precipitation was converted from snow to rain by a layer of warm air at around 1,500 meters,” explained Florian Engelmann from the German Weather Service when asked. If the rain falls on cleared, exposed roads, which have a temperature below zero degrees, especially in the higher altitudes, it becomes extremely slippery.
Serious bus accidents involving students have caused great concern in the past. In January 2020, in western Thuringia, a school bus with more than 20 children on board started sliding, slid down a slope and rolled over several times. Two eight-year-olds in a second grade class died and many other children were injured. In October 2015, a coach carrying students from Saxony had an accident on the motorway near Erfurt. A teacher’s five-year-old son died and more than a dozen students aged 13 and 14 were seriously injured.
