In Berlin-Steglitz is a scheduled bus service late Thursday evening BVG crashed. According to initial findings, the double-decker bus on Bergstrasse did not come under a bridge. He crashed into the overpass and, as photos show, got stuck. A vehicle of the type MAN DL08, delivered in 2009, was affected and was traveling on route 282 between Dardanellenweg in Marienfelde and Breitenbachplatz. “It is well known that the double-deckers are becoming fewer. In Bergstraße, a bridge led to the end of another example (DL 3433),” said a comment in the Berlin Local Transport Forum on the Internet.
The Berliners fire department received an emergency call at 9:57 p.m. According to initial findings, in addition to the bus driver, there were six other people on the bus, three of whom were injured, the police said on Friday morning.
Severe head injuries
Two men aged 31 and 75 suffered serious head and torso injuries respectively and were taken to a hospital for inpatient treatment. Another man is said to have suffered minor injuries who were treated on an outpatient basis, police said.
Accident in Berlin-Steglitz: fire brigade with 40 rescuers on duty
Around 40 firefighters were at the scene of the accident until shortly before midnight. A structural engineer checked the stability of the bridge.
Die police must now try to determine the cause of the accident. The 282 buses do not normally drive over Bergstraße and under the S-Bahn and Autobahn. The regular route from the direction of Marienfelde leads from Steglitzer Damm via Albrechtstrasse to Steglitz station. There the buses turn right into Schloßstraße. It is not yet known why the driver chose an unusual route.
The driver of the BVG double-decker bus made two wrong turns
On Friday there were first indications from local transport fans that explain why the driver of the double-decker deviated from the path.
From the direction of Marienfelde, the bus drove towards the Albrechtstraße / Neue Filandastraße / Klingsorstraße intersection – so far everything was correct. This Steglitz junction is a construction site, it is getting new asphalt. Because of the work, the “Neue Filandastraße” bus stop has been moved a few meters forward and is now directly in front of the start of the construction site area.
“Currently, the traffic routing is such that you have to get into the far left lane at the start of the construction site in order to be able to drive straight ahead in the direction of the town hall while crossing the median on the oncoming lane,” explains the explanation. Apparently that didn’t happen in this case. With a serious consequence: “If you stay in the right lane, which begins after the bus stop and has already been renovated, you will inevitably turn into Neue Filandastrasse in the direction of Bierpinsel.”
“Not bad until then, something like that can happen,” it says. But it would have been good if the driver had contacted the BVG control center by now at the latest. She would have told him the right way to get to the Steglitz town hall: continue to the Tiburtius Bridge and then take the Autobahn to the Wolfensteindamm exit. Instead, the driver turned left from Neue Filandastrasse into Bergstrasse – and was stopped by the bridge.
Bottleneck in Reinickendorf could be defused
The Lion’s City DD double-decker buses, to which the affected vehicle belonged, are considered giants in Berlin’s traffic. With a length of 13.73 meters and a height of 4.06 meters, the three-axle vehicles are striking. In the meantime, their number is decreasing, the big yellow ones are getting on in years. Single-decker vehicles also dominate on route 282.
Signs in front of the motorway bridge over the Bergstraße in Steglitz indicate that this section of the road is forbidden for double-decker buses – the clearance height is 3.70 meters. “A warning notice was attached to the mast of the stop in front of the bridge for line 170,” says an insider. However, this additional indication is difficult to see in the dark.
Experts advise installing a crossbar in front of this bridge as well, with a warning sign dangling underneath. If a vehicle that is too high drives against it, the bar hits the edge of the roof – this warns the driver. 40 meters before the bridge on Klemkestraße in Reinickendorf, under which trucks and double-decker buses have also repeatedly gotten stuck, there have been such “bell bars” since 2009. This is what the clearance gauge bridges are called in technical jargon.
“As far as I know, nothing has happened since then,” says a bus specialist. “Without looking, I can think of at least four other DDs that have already crashed on the mountain road. It therefore surprises me why this point is not defused more sustainably. ”These too new double-decker buses that the British manufacturer Alexander Dennis is supplying to the BVGare 4.06 meters high – too high for some bridges in the city.