One death, one serious injury, 17 minor injuries, 24 traffic accidents, 39 interventions on public roads… Here is the report from the Bas-Rhin firefighters after the episode of freezing rain this Wednesday morning.
It all started on Tuesday afternoon, when the Bas-Rhin prefecture announced the department's switch to yellow snow-ice vigilance, from 2 a.m. in the night. The warning message from the authorities was quite clear: “Precipitation, in the form of drizzle, could make untreated sidewalks and roads slippery.” The prefecture accompanied this alert with “advice to the population”, recommending caution and vigilance. In the south-west of Germany, on the other hand, vigilance was placed a notch higher, color orange.
A thousand accidents in Baden-Württemberg
The night from Tuesday to Wednesday was cold. Temperatures did not rise above 0°C, both in the regions of Strasbourg and Colmar and Mulhouse.
Around 4 a.m., in the easternmost sectors (Moselle, Bouxwiller, Saverne, etc.), the arrival of a warmer front from Germany led to the formation of a drizzle, very fine droplets mixed with fog, which, upon contact with frozen ground, gave rise to this black ice.
“This phenomenon, very difficult to predict, barely detectable on radar, then shifted in time and towards the south, reaching the Molsheim-Obernai-Erstein-Benfeld sector around 8-10 a.m.”, as explained Christophe Mertz, meteorologist at ATMO-Risk.
In Germany, it was a much more active – and much more predictable – front that caused significant disruption. There have been around a thousand accidents throughout the state of Baden-Württemberg.
In Orschweier, Ortenau, two occupants of a car were seriously injured in an accident also involving a bus (seven passengers slightly injured). Further east, in Bavaria, two people were killed on motorways.
Traffic jam on the D1420 which leads to the Bruche valley. Photo Boris Marois
Fatal collision in Krautergersheim
At 6:40 a.m. Wednesday, the first bulletin on traffic conditions delivered by the European Community of Alsace (CEA) indicated a difficult situation in Alsace Bossue and in the Northern Vosges, due to freezing rain. The situation was also described as “delicate” in Sundgau and the Alsatian Jura, due to localized patches of ice.
The situation was also very difficult in Moselle and on the main roads in the Grand Est between Reims and Strasbourg, particularly on the A4 motorway. Six accidents occurred in the morning, almost simultaneously, on this structuring axis.
In Alsace, around 7:30 a.m., a fatal accident was reported on the RD 207, between Bischoffsheim and Krautergersheim, on the latter's municipal border.
A car apparently slipped on a patch of ice, then hit a tractor coming in the opposite direction. The driver, from Bischoffsheim and aged 36, was killed instantly.
SMUR 67, the Obernai firefighters and gendarmes were mobilized, as well as the services of the DIR Est to regulate traffic during the intervention. The tractor driver was not injured.
Accidentd cars on the A35 motorway. Photo Thomas Toussaint
Rescue and breakdown operations (like here on the A35) caused significant slowdowns on the motorways around Strasbourg. Photo Thomas Toussaint
Shortly after 8 a.m., an accident involving two heavy goods vehicles was reported in the town of Gresswiller.
The rest of the morning was going to be just as complicated. After 9 a.m., the CEA informed of the occurrence of an accident involving numerous vehicles, including a heavy goods vehicle, on the A35 between Strasbourg and Colmar, near Duppigheim. This pileup caused chaos at the junction between the A 352 – blocked for several hours – and the A35, with a 7 km long traffic jam at the height of the disruption. The return to normal, with the reopening of the slow lane, did not occur until 3:30 p.m.
Half an hour later, the D83 found itself blocked. Near Osthouse, a new accident involving several vehicles had just occurred, again causing impressive slowdowns.
Freezing rain this Wednesday. Photo Franck Delhomme
At 10:45 a.m., the road network affected by difficult traffic conditions was widened by the CEA to the central Vosges, Kochersberg and Ackerland sector, between Strasbourg, Wasselonne and Saverne.
The RD 1420 was cut in the direction Molsheim – Schirmeck on Wednesday morning. Photo Boris Marois
Many calls for caution
The Wissembourg gendarmerie company reported ten road accidents in its sector this Wednesday morning: several road exits at the Col du Pigeonnier on the D3 between Wissembourg and Climbach, but also in Rott, Lauterbourg and Preuschdorf.
As everywhere else in Bas-Rhin, traffic was significantly slowed down throughout the morning.
The Molsheim aid station. Photo Boris Marois
A reception center opened in Molsheim
At 11:30 a.m., the Bas-Rhin gendarmerie reiterated its calls for caution: “Following several road accidents recorded this morning in the department, traffic conditions are extremely difficult.” All this, by listing the list of roads occasionally closed to traffic: A352, RD 1004, 1083, 1420. That is, more or less, the main roads of Bas-Rhin.
Faced with this endless list of collisions, a reception center for people involved in accidents on the motorway was opened at the Mint in Molsheim. Place where 25 people were treated in a psychological emergency medical station set up by SAMU 67. Many wrecked motorists described a “real ice rink” on the A35 motorway.
Fortunately, this episode did not ultimately “migrate” to the Haut-Rhin, as some forecasters feared.
At the end of the morning, temperatures returned to positive levels across the entire road network, causing the ice to disappear.
