The giant blade of a wind turbine fell from the truck that was transporting it on Tuesday morning, squashing the cabin of another truck and completely shutting down traffic on a busy motorway.
The giant blade of a wind turbine fell from the truck that was transporting it on Tuesday morning, squashing the cabin of another truck and completely shutting down traffic on a busy motorway.
On the Autobahn 33 near Bielefeld (Germany) there was a serious accident early Tuesday morning. A truck crashed into the end of a vehicle loaded with the blade of a windmill - which is now across the road. Removal of the turbine blade is difficult.
Photos of the accident can be found here.
According to police, the accident occurred around 5 o'clock in the morning between the motorway cross in Bielefeld and the connection station at Senne. The heavy load transporter carrying the wind turbine blade attempted to leave the connection point in the direction of Osnabrück. Behind him was a companion vehicle to secure safe transport. It is unclear how the truck driven by a 61-year-old driver from Herzebrock-Clarholz came in contact with the …
... more [truncated due to possible copyright]On the Autobahn 33 near Bielefeld (Germany) there was a serious accident early Tuesday morning. A truck crashed into the end of a vehicle loaded with the blade of a windmill - which is now across the road. Removal of the turbine blade is difficult.
Photos of the accident can be found here.
According to police, the accident occurred around 5 o'clock in the morning between the motorway cross in Bielefeld and the connection station at Senne. The heavy load transporter carrying the wind turbine blade attempted to leave the connection point in the direction of Osnabrück. Behind him was a companion vehicle to secure safe transport. It is unclear how the truck driven by a 61-year-old driver from Herzebrock-Clarholz came in contact with the accompanying vehicle. When he tried to avoid the vehicle, he went up to the top of the wind turbine blade. He was then pushed by the transporter and ended up vertically on the roadway. "He pushed half of the truck," said a spokesman for the police told reporters.
The car that was approaching on the opposite lanes at that time, also hit the blade causing it to drill into the truck. The driver was seriously injured. Another truck, which was behind the car also hit the blade.
Rescue vehicles on the scene carried several people to nearby hospitals.
The wind turbine blade now lies across the entire motorway and removal is difficult. The blade will need to be sawed into smaller pieces. The blade was en route to a wind energy facility located in Bielefeld-Eckardtsheim.
According to the police in Bielefeld, the A33 at the junction of Bielefeld-Senne is fully blocked in both directions, causing miles of congestion. The police slowly drove the traffic jams back to the next exit, slowly releasing the traffic jam. The A33 should be reopened again after 4 pm at the earliest.
The police estimated the material damage to be about 460,000 euros.
Translation to English assisted using Google Translate.