Incident: A Mishap Occurs - A24 road repair following truck blaze takes more time than anticipated.
A blaze that involved three trucks on the A24, east of Hamburg has caused more extensive damage than originally anticipated. On Monday, Autobahn GmbH Nord revealed that work to repair the road between Hornbek and Gudow would go on until Thursday morning. The single lane for motorists traveling to Berlin was set to reopen at 9 pm on Monday, but on Tuesday, the road would be shut completely from 7 am to 7 pm to replace damaged concrete. After which, the lane would be accessible while the freshly laid concrete set, with the eastern-bound stretch expected to be clear by 7 am on Thursday.
Last Friday afternoon, a fire broke out a few kilometers from the border between Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, involving three trucks. One of the drivers, a 38-year-old Czech national, sustained only minor injuries. The incident commenced as a rear-end collision after a semi-trailer, loaded with meat, experienced a tire blowout and became immobile, prompting a colleague with another semi-trailer to approach and aid. However, the trailer of a third truck, full of toys, slammed into the trailing pair for unexplained reasons and burst into an inferno. Law enforcement authorities put out the blaze with support from twelve fire departments, estimating the ensuing property damage at a whopping 800,000 euros.
The A24 remained closed for an interval of five hours in both directions on that day, with the lane heading to Hamburg being reopened, while the other direction was only usable for single-lane traffic early on Sunday morning.
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- Despite the police and firefighters managing to put out the blaze, the damages were so extensive that the repair work on the A24 between Hornbek and Gudow, particularly in the area close to Gudow in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, took longer than expected.
- The closure of the A24 due to the truck fire had significant consequences in the neighboring regions, such as Berlin and Hamburg, leading to increased traffic on alternative routes and delays for motorists.
- In another unfortunate incident, a series of accidents along the same road in Schleswig-Holstein near the border with Mecklenburg-Vorpommerna created additional congestion, causing further delays for travelers.
- The accumulation of accidents and related road closures in Mecklenburg-Vorpommerna and Schleswig-Holstein can potentially lead to an increased number of accidents due to traffic diversion and extended travel times.
- As the police and fire departments continue to investigate the causes of the truck blaze and subsequent accidents, officials in Traffic Management from Berlin, Hamburger Senate Department for Urban Development and Environment, and the Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure and Digitalization of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Schleswig-Holstein are closely monitoring the situation to ensure safety and minimize any further inconvenience for the traveling public.
Source: www.stern.de
