Numerous trucks also blocked the A5 in East Hesse on Friday night due to snow and ice. The motorway between Gießen and Alsfeld had been closed since Thursday afternoon, a police spokeswoman said during the night. A 50-year-old truck driver was killed in a rear-end collision near Reinhardshain near Gießen on the A5. The man drove his tractor-trailer into the end of a traffic jam shortly after midnight, almost without braking, as the police announced in the morning. He died at the scene of the accident. The traffic jam formed when vehicles broke down in the snow and slippery conditions, the police reported.
The weather situation is expected to ease today after the heavy snowfall of the previous days. The German Weather Service (DWD) only expects fresh snow in isolated cases, especially in the north. It should stay mostly dry on Saturday too.
However, the road conditions still caused problems for many drivers during the night. The police said they were trying to persuade truck drivers on the A5 to continue driving. But this is not only made more difficult by the weather.
Some vehicles ran out of fuel because the drivers left their heaters running. In addition, some drivers would not start because they had to adhere to the statutory rest times. Due to the winter weather, long traffic jams had already formed the previous night because trucks could no longer move forward on slippery roads or slipped across the road.
There were also ice icing accidents in the evening, for example near Freudenstadt in Baden-Württemberg. Five vehicles collided after a truck was unable to continue on the B294 due to weather and had to be overtaken. Four people were injured.
Weather service reports intermediate high influence
The DWD reported that the polar cold air was under the influence of intermediate highs and that only the north was touched by low foothills. Today, isolated, heavy snow and sleet showers are expected in the north and northwest, with occasional thunderstorms in the coastal area. Snowfall is expected to decrease in the Alps. Otherwise there is an alternation of sun and clouds. There is mostly light permanent frost over the middle and south. Otherwise 0 to 4 degrees can be expected, on the coast up to 6 degrees.
On Saturday night there were only a few snow showers in the extreme northeast, it said. In some places, slippery conditions can be expected due to snow that has thawed during the day or, in regions with dense fog, due to freezing wet fog. It will often remain dry during the day.
Rescue workers helped with blankets and hot drinks
On Thursday, hundreds of people were stuck in traffic jams on highways for hours. Snow and slippery roads caused significant obstructions on the roads. Motorways 3, 4, 5 and 7 were particularly affected.
In East Hesse, people in kilometer-long traffic jams were provided with blankets and hot drinks by rescue workers. Traffic was also backed up in the south of North Rhine-Westphalia and on the A3 in northern Rhineland-Palatinate. The situation on most motorways eased again over the course of the day and traffic jams cleared up.
Hundreds of flights were canceled at Germany’s largest airport, Frankfurt, on Thursday. Some schools also remained closed on Thursday – for example in the Göttingen district in southern Lower Saxony. ICE trains between Stuttgart and Paris were canceled due to weather conditions in France. Already on Wednesday, people in large parts of Germany were slipping on slippery roads and paths. There were numerous accidents across the country. But there was no real chaos.
