Werschau bus accident
The Werschau bus accident took place on July 25, 1966 and claimed 33 lives.
The misfortune
At 5:15 a.m. on July 25, 1966, a Belgian coach broke through the guard rails of the federal motorway 3 in the "Werschauer Loch" and fell from the motorway bridge. Coming from Bad Camberg , the motorway leads downhill for a longer stretch and, shortly before the lowest point, takes a left curve to the viaduct over the state road 3022 before it goes up again on a long straight towards Limburg an der Lahn . The right front wheel of the bus hit a concrete base on the right side of the road and then tore off the heavy railing of the bridge. He fell 12 meters. The structure of the heavy vehicle was heavily compressed in the impact. The bus was technically in good condition. The cause of the accident is suspected to be fatigue of the bus driver (who was also killed).
The bus was manned by a group of Belgian schoolchildren who were returning from Schladming to Belgium. Of the 43 people on board, 33 died, including 28 children. Most of the children had been surprised by death in their sleep. Rescuing the survivors proved difficult: the fire brigade was only equipped with axes to free the survivors from the bus. 17 people were declared dead on site, the others were taken to nearby hospitals. The St. Vincenz Hospital Limburg was not able to take in all the injured, some had to be brought to Diez or Hadamar . Only 10 bus travelers survived.
A traffic jam formed on the motorway, which led to secondary accidents. A rear-end collision was particularly tragic. A driver of a heavy limousine noticed the end of the traffic jam too late. During the evasive maneuver, he got into the opposite lane and collided with another vehicle. One of the occupants of this vehicle, a Bundeswehr soldier, was killed.
The accident aroused grief and dismay nationwide and especially in Belgium. The wife of the Belgian ambassador to Germany, Madame Loridan, visited the survivors in the hospital. Federal President Heinrich Lübke and Hesse's Prime Minister Georg August Zinn sent telegrams of condolence to King Baudouin . Federal Transport Minister Seebohm also condoled his Belgian counterpart Alfred Bertrand . Over 60 relatives were flown in with a Belgian military plane, others were brought to Limburg in two buses.
The dead were laid out in the auditorium of the Tilemann School in Limburg, where their relatives said goodbye. A requiem took place in the fully occupied Limburg Cathedral . Then there was a funeral service in the Tilemann School. Representatives from federal, state, district and city and Belgian representatives, including Minister of Education Michel Touissant , expressed their mourning. Then the dead were transferred to Belgium and buried.
Commemoration
At the accident site on Landesstrasse 3022, a memorial stone commemorates those who died in the accident. It is a large boulder on which three boards describe the course of the accident in German, French and Dutch. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the accident, an information exhibition was held by the community archive and the fire brigade in the United Volksbank eG Limburg, Niederbruch branch .
See also
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- Crashing omnibus kills 33 occupants; in: FAZ of July 26, 1966, p. 7.
- 50 years ago - bus accident at the Niederbruch motorway bridge; Press release from the municipal archive in Brechen from July 22, 2016, online .
- Petra Hackert: Memories of the 1966 bus accident in Niederbruch; in: Nassauischen Neue Presse from January 31, 2018, online .
Coordinates: 50 ° 21 '25.3 " N , 8 ° 9' 8.1" E