Freezing rain turned many streets into dangerous slides in Lower Saxony and Bremen on Monday morning. In the Hanover region, in the Peine district and in the city of Bremen, among other things, there were numerous slippery accidents in rush-hour traffic. On the Autobahn 27 near Walsrode, a 25-year-old driver died in an accident at around 3.30 a.m. His car left the road because it was slippery, the car broke through the guardrail and crashed into a tree. In other places, dozens of accidents only resulted in body damage, the police said.
Because of the warning from the German Weather Service (DWD) about the formation of black ice in some cases, most cities and districts in Lower Saxony had canceled face-to-face classes for Monday. This affected the city and region of Hanover, as well as the districts of Diepholz, Northeim, Celle, Hameln-Pyrmont, Grafschaft Bentheim, Leer, Osterholz, Stade, Wittmund and Vechta. A list of more than 40 reports of school cancellations can be viewed at the traffic management center in Lower Saxony.
In the city and district of Göttingen, classes at primary and secondary schools were canceled, but not at vocational schools. In the municipality of Bremerhaven, the first two lessons were canceled at all public schools. This also applied to the municipality of Bremen.
There were a total of around 100 traffic accidents in the Göttingen area, the police said. In most cases there was sheet metal damage. The driver of a pickup truck was critically injured on Autobahn 7. For unknown reasons, the vehicle had hit a bus at the end of a traffic jam. According to the Göttingen motorway police, the traffic jam had formed because of the weather. The control center in the Hanover region registered 136 rescue operations as a result of black ice by Monday afternoon.
According to the DWD, the background to the weather conditions was the foothills of the “Franziska” low. The associated precipitation area did not bring excessively high amounts of precipitation, but it was enough to make roads and sidewalks mirror-smooth, it said. During the course of the day, the area of precipitation moved to the north-east half of Germany. According to the DWD, rain with mild temperatures is expected on Tuesday.
In the city of Osnabrück and in the district of Wolfenbüttel, garbage collectors initially stopped in the courtyard in the morning. The district administration in the Peine district announced that it could only be reached to a limited extent. Police departments from many regions in Lower Saxony each reported dozens of weather-related car accidents. In the city of Bremen, the police counted around 80 car accidents due to slippery roads – there were mainly body damage. According to the fire brigade in Bremerhaven, the feared ice chaos did not materialize, they only counted three ice-related accidents up to 9:00 a.m.
In large parts of Lower Saxony, classes were canceled because the safety of the way to school and student transport could no longer be guaranteed, said the state school authority in Lüneburg. In the future, too, school cancellations cannot be ruled out during the winter months if the weather conditions are appropriate.
In principle, the authority emphasized that parents who fear an unreasonable risk to their children on the way to school due to extreme weather conditions can keep their children at home or pick them up early from class if no general cancellation of classes has been ordered. Despite the cancellation of classes, there is emergency care for students who cannot stay at home.
Lower Saxony traffic management center Tweet Diepholz police Tweet Northeim district administration Warning message from the DWD school cancellation in extreme weather conditions Notification from the Göttingen police inspection
