Around thirty people were injured on Wednesday, ten of them seriously, when a tank overturned near the German city of Freiburg im Breisgau, in the southwest of the country, local police said. Previous information mentioned a May 1 parade, without this being confirmed.
The hitch, a trailer pulled by a tractor, rolled onto its side as the driver of the vehicle made a left turn, she said in a statement. “Around thirty people” who had sat on this tank then fell and were injured in the accident, including “ten seriously”, according to the police.
The victims were taken care of by “numerous rescue forces, including several rescue helicopters, particularly from neighboring Switzerland,” the police said.
The events occurred around 1:05 p.m. on a road near the town of Kandern, a few dozen kilometers from Freiburg im Breisgau, Basel and the border with France.
According to the first elements of the investigation, reported by our German-speaking colleagues from “20 Minuten”, the people who were only slightly injured were able to leave the scene of the accident.
The police investigation, opened against the tractor driver for unintentional injuries, will have to determine the reasons for this accident. And in particular to establish whether the number of people who had taken place on the trailer was too large. Because it seems that speed was not to blame: the convoy was almost at a standstill when the accident occurred, said a police spokesperson.
