When the emergency services come to the overturned coach, they first have to take a deep breath. “Of course it’s always a phase of chaos with something like this,” says Martin Cornils from the Fürstenfeldbruck traffic police station. "There are objects lying around, people walking through the forest - it's actually not nice." Two people die and numerous others are injured, some seriously, when a coach leaves the road on Autobahn 96 near Buchloe in Ostallgäu.
It was actually supposed to be a particularly happy day for the travel group: the Filipino citizens living in Italy were on their way to the Oktoberfest in Munich in the best late summer weather. But instead of a Ferris wheel, roasted almonds and a pint of beer, what suddenly awaited her was blood and flashing lights: at around 5:41 a.m. her bus veered off the road to the right between the Buchloe-Ost and Landsberg am Lech-West junctions. The vehicle belonging to an Italian travel company overturns and remains at the edge of the forest.
Until the afternoon it remained unclear exactly how many people were injured. Six people were immediately taken to hospitals in rescue helicopters, one of whom was in mortal danger. Two others were taken to clinics by ambulance. 22 other injured people were treated at a collection point, several of whom were then taken to hospitals.
Initially only one of the two dead people could be identified: it was a 58-year-old man, also a Filipino citizen living in Italy. The identities of the other victims and the severity of their injuries were not immediately known.
“It is of course a big mess at first and finding the facts is difficult,” explained a spokeswoman for the Upper Bavaria North Police Headquarters. Therefore, it was only after a few hours that it became clear that there were not quite as many people on the bus coming from Milan as initially assumed. In the end it was clear: there were 35 people.
The 33 members of the tour group all had Filipino nationality, it was said. They were accompanied by two bus drivers of Italian nationality who were uninjured. The driver who was behind the wheel at the time of the accident was 40 years old. He is now being investigated for negligent homicide in traffic, said the police spokeswoman. “That’s the usual course of things.”
The accident called on a large contingent of around 130 rescue workers from the fire department, 130 paramedics and around 20 police officers. They initially had a clear focus: “Now the focus is on rescue, on caring for the people who had an accident,” said the spokeswoman in the morning. The highway was temporarily closed in both directions for the rescue work. After the opposite direction, including a lane towards Munich, was reopened around midday, traffic was able to flow freely again from the afternoon onwards.
The reason for the accident remained unclear. “The public prosecutor’s office has commissioned an accident analysis report to clarify the cause of the accident. “It’s far too early to comment,” emphasized the presidential spokeswoman.
