Deadly Sandstorm: Video of 80 car pile-up in Germany, 10 dead, dozens injured

Deadly Sandstorm: Video of 80 car pile-up in Germany, 10 dead, dozens injured

Ten people were killed and 44 injured in Germany on Friday when a freak sandstorm caused a motorway pile-up involving at least 80 vehicles. Police said 17 cars and three lorries went up in flames in the mass collision at Kavelstorf, near the Baltic Sea coast.They said the pile-up was likely caused when winds swept up loose topsoil from a recently plowed field, blocking the drivers' view. It took emergency workers until late in the evening to clear the stretch of motorway.

how about this for a freaky sand storm .....it looks like something out of a nuclear nightmare.

Wow. Didn't even know they had sand in Germany. Stuff like that happens out here in the SW all the time.

What i know this happens almost every year, the sand comes from Sahara desert (if i remember correctly) i Think it was in 2007 we hade it all the way to up to Southern part of Sweden!

I once worked at a greenhouse in Lake Village, Indiana about an hour south of Chicago. All of a sudden the sky turned dark, the wind picked up, and sand began sandblasting me. Then someone yelled "Sandstorm!" and we all ran into the main house. They all acted like it was normal, I asked Sandstorm?
And, yes it was because the local farmers nearly 7 of them had plowed their field's while the soil was very dry, which created a very large chain reaction in front of my eyes. Truly amazing.
The soil down there (south of the Kankakee River is sand-we even had (no joke) giant tumble weeds in late July/August
S7F

we never have sandstorms in germany

this one came from a dry field next to the road...the unusual thing was the strong wind...

reply to post by angrydog


Yep. No Sand here. Though the Windy Weather we have here in the last few Days is really annoying...

I never knew they had sandstorms in Germany.

reply to post by snapperski


I live in the Midwest of the US and I have seen where farmers were readying their fields for planting, and that will kick up one heck of a dust storm. What I find unusual about this is all the vehicles that caught on fire! Is that usual for a sand storm?

Well whatever it was sand or dirt...it must of been like something from the twilight zone,at the time...can you image driving into all this....Cars on fire,Cars blowing up..People screaming for help in the mist,car after car piling up upon each other...What a nightmare situation.

Now i'm guessing you have to stay in your car,to protect yourself from the sand/dirt blasting you would get..which added to the danger of staying in your car,in zero visibility..Kind of a no win situation.

Here in Australia we had one towards end of the summer lasting 2 days......

and we're expecting another in the coming weeks.

reply to post by Shenon


well i live in berlin ..and we never had so horrible wind before like the last days...strong boes..
somethimes the whole house is shaking a bit..:S

scary

The article I read yesterday at MSNBC said:
Strong winds may have carried the sand from nearby fields — one of them freshly ploughed — to the four-lane highway, Werner said. The region has recently experienced prolonged dry conditions, affecting agriculture and leaving many soils exposed to erosion.

I know some people from Germany and they said the occurrence isn't all that odd, (of having sandstorms that is,) but this one was odd in their opinion.
The drought there is what got me concerned.

I live in Arizona with cotton fields all around. The stretch around I-10 always has accidents around here when a dust storm comes in. When I see no visibility out the window, you know the 10 is shut down due to an accident up here.

Wow, No idea they had them in Germany.

If this is "Top Trumps" for crashes, i think i have a winner.

Last weeke here, on the main highway between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, there was a crash involving 20 cars. 1 dead, and 62 injured, some seriously. Caused by driving too fast, and too close, during the fog that happens here at this time of year, when we get quite high humidity, cassing often dense fog in the morning.

In exactly the same place three years ago, there was a similar crash, involving 200 cars, i think, and a lot more dead. Google something like "dubai abu dhabi highway crash ghantoot"and you will see the carnage.

Bad accidents are all too familiar over here, as a lot of people drive like a maniac, in large vehicles, which is a recipe for disaster.

Dare i mention the lack of speed limit

Sandstorm in Germany?
Sounds like a conspiracy to me!

lol

But seriously, thats freaky!