Slippery road warning: Saarland in danger – accidents after drunk driving!

On January 12, 2025, the German Weather Service (DWD) issued an official ice warning for Saarland, which applies to all districts in Saarland from the evening hours of the same day. Despite this warning, numerous drunk driving cases were recorded as early as January 11, 2025, leading to various accidents.

On January 10, 2025, a 54-year-old driver in Riegelsberg drove drunk onto the Saarbahn tracks with a breath alcohol level of over two per mille. In addition, on January 11, 2025, there was an accident on the A6 between St. Ingbert and Güdingen that was related to an illegal street race; The police are asking for witness statements in this case.

More events and security notifications

Unfortunately, a tragic incident also occurred on January 11, 2025 in Kaiserslautern, where a 68-year-old woman died in a fire. In the coming days, several concerts will be announced in Saarbrücken, as well as Bundeswehr exercises, the affected areas of which will be announced in February 2025.

Special attention is also paid to road safety. Investigations show that there is a safety risk when the potential friction between the road and the tires is exceeded. In order to counteract this risk, systems are being developed to reliably estimate the potential for friction. A test subject study in the driving simulator at the Technical University of Berlin has shown that an acoustic warning in slippery conditions causes drivers to better adapt their driving behavior in dangerous situations.

Studies suggest that slippery road warnings could have a significant impact on truck accidents: it is estimated that 12% of all accidents could be reduced through the use of such systems, with a mean reduction in driving speed of 9.6 km/h at a speed of 80 km/h. It turns out that the warning could prevent almost 30% of collisions in solo accidents or accidents with another vehicle.