Student bus slips into the ditch - weather chaos in NRW!

On January 9, 2025, there were several traffic accidents in North Rhine-Westphalia due to winter road conditions. A regular bus with 30 students got in front of a tree between Salzkotten-Niedudorf and Büren-Wewelsburg. Fortunately, there were no injuries, while the bus got stuck in the ditch slightly damaged and finally had to be pulled out. The students had to switch to a replacement bus and reached their school late.

in Bestwig (Hochsauerlandkreis) caused a serious accident in which a 45-year-old driver got oncoming and collided with a 38-year-old. Both drivers suffered serious injuries. In addition, the police in Heinsberg reported several weather -related accidents in the morning: a truck slipped into a guardrail, and there was a rear -end collision. At night, six accidents were registered that were classified as comparatively calm.

weather conditions and effects

In Aachen, the garbage disposal was only carried out to a limited extent because several trees had fallen, and cemeteries were closed to visitors. From the district of Euskirchen, the police reported on ten traffic accidents with property damage. The Düren police registered 16 weather -related traffic accidents between yesterday and this morning. Bus traffic was temporarily discontinued in Wuppertal and in the Eifel in the morning due to the winter weather, while in South Westphalia the Verkehrsbetriebe Westfalen-Süd and the Westfalenbus of the DB also stopped operating.

During the night, up to 14 centimeters of snow fell in the affected regions, and up to ten centimeters of fresh snow are expected for today. In addition to snow, snow and freezing rain is also expected in the south half. From noon, only individual snow showers are announced.

A research report of the Environmental Federal Office states that traffic safety is strongly influenced by the meteorological conditions. In the autumn and winter months in particular, the risk of accidents is higher, although the number of accidents with personal damage due to adapted speeds is lower than in the warmer months when more people are on foot, by bike or motorcycle.