A double-decker FlixBus left Berlin on the morning of Wednesday, March 27, 2024, carrying two drivers and 52 passengers toward Nuremberg, with Zurich as the final stop. Two hours into the trip it veered right on the busy A9 autobahn near Leipzig and fell onto its side. Four people died and 35 were hurt.
The crash happened at about 10:00 local time at a junction near Leipzig/Halle Airport, northwest of the city. The company said the bus was running as service 107. Police told German media that no other vehicle was involved.
Early reports spoke of five dead. Police later confirmed four, with a fifth person in critical condition. Six of the injured were seriously hurt and 29 had light injuries.
Rescue helicopters and a large number of ambulances went to the scene, and local hospitals were told to prepare for a major emergency. Both carriageways were shut near the Schkeuditzer Kreuz interchange.
“The exact circumstances of the accident are not yet known,” FlixBus said in a statement. The firm added that the route was operated on its behalf, and that its thoughts were with everyone affected and their families. Officials in Saxony said the same.
Driver under investigation
By Thursday, prosecutors said the driver was being investigated on suspicion of manslaughter and negligent bodily harm, according to the Ukrainian outlet UNN, citing German news agency DPA. German press also reported an argument between the bus’s two drivers, a 62-year-old Czech and a 53-year-old Slovak. A witness said they were “arguing loudly” shortly before the crash, which has fed a theory that the Czech driver lost control because of it. Officials had not confirmed that account.
The A9, the north-south motorway from Berlin to Munich, has seen coach crashes near Leipzig before. One happened most recently the previous December, and in 2019 a woman was killed in a coach accident on the same road, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) south in Saxony-Anhalt.
Sources
- FlixBus: Deadly crash on German motorway near Leipzig – Suggest2u
- Fatal accident in Germany: Flixbus bus overturns near Leipzig, killing 4 people, driver under investigation
Sources
- FlixBus: Deadly crash on German motorway near Leipzig
- FlixBus: Erschwingliche Busreisen durch Deutschland & Europa
