Four people died in a head-on collision between a car and a truck on federal highway 51 in the Osnabrück district. Two adults and two small children were in the car, all of whom died at the scene of the accident, a police spokesman said.
According to the police, the four dead are a family from North Rhine-Westphalia. A 25-year-old was at the wheel of the Mitsubishi, the passenger was a 24-year-old, and two boys aged two years and eight months were sitting in the back seat. First responders would have freed a child from the car, the other seriously injured were brought out of the vehicle wreck by rescue workers with heavy technical equipment. The injured succumbed to their fatal injuries.
The 41-year-old driver of the semitrailer suffered a shock. The man from Friesoythe tried to slow down his 40-ton truck and dodge the accident around 1 a.m., the police said.
According to the police, it is no longer possible to determine why the father’s car entered the oncoming lane. The car’s speedometer stopped at 110 kilometers per hour, although the road only allows 70. But that is not a clear indication. The speedometer could also have changed during the accident. Investigators believe the 23-year-old may have fallen asleep, had a heart attack, or lost control. Other reasons are also possible. For the public prosecutor’s office, he is considered the cause of the accident, but no investigation is carried out into the dead.
In addition to two local fire brigades, five ambulances, several emergency doctors, several patrol cars and several emergency chaplains were on duty.
