A surprisingly dangerous incident took place last Friday, on a renovated section of the German A10 motorway, located near the city of Niederlehm and part of the Berlin Ring Road. A “bathtub” raised tipper crashed into a gantry, injuring the driver and requiring a time-consuming detour of traffic.
The incident involved a self-unloading semi-trailer with a Scania R-series owned by a local carrier and working on the aforementioned refurbishment. Its 56-year-old driver, not leaving the tipper after unloading, hit the gantries supporting the guide boards. The force of this impact was able to separate the superstructure from the cylinder, while the tractor was subjected to a very large load, suddenly reduced to zero.
Unfortunately, the driver was injured. Once emergency services arrived at the scene, he was loaded into an ambulance and taken to hospital. Also, due to the threat to the environment, the services had to take care of the gantry soon. Initially, it was supported by a self-propelled crane, then it was decided to remove it completely.
As I mentioned, the accident happened on a repaired strip, closed to normal traffic. However, the demolition of the gantry caused problems on the nearby carriageway, blocking the A10 motorway westbound for around five hours. The detour started at the Dreieck Spreeau interchange and traffic became very difficult on Friday.
