Five die as car ploughs through Germany pedestrian zone

[pieter]

Trier: Five die as car ploughs through Germany pedestrian zone



A car has ploughed through a pedestrian area in the western German city of Trier, killing five people including a nine-week-old baby girl, police say.

The driver, a 51-year-old local man, has been arrested. The prosecutor said the suspect had drunk a significant amount of alcohol.

Authorities said they were not working on the assumption that the incident was politically or religiously motivated.

The city's mayor described the scene as "horrible".

Witnesses said people screamed in panic and some were thrown in the air by an SUV travelling at high speed in Trier's Brotstrasse and Simeonstrasse streets towards the city's famous Roman gate, the Porta Nigra.

The incident happened at around 13:45 local time (12:45 GMT), and the suspect drove for 1km (0.62 miles) "hitting people at random on his way" before being stopped by a police car, Trier police spokesman Karl-Peter Jochem said earlier.

The victims were three women, aged 25, 52 and 73. Police said the 45-year-old father of the baby was also killed. His wife and one-year-old son were injured and admitted to hospital.


Christmas illuminations merge with flashing blue lights
By Nick Beake, BBC News, Trier

Central Trier is almost silent tonight.

The flashing blue lights of dozens of police vehicles compete with the Christmas illuminations in front of the Porta Nigra, the famous Roman gate. Tonight it is an entrance to a large crime scene.

The city, often claimed as Germany's oldest, is the now the latest to experience a horrific and fatal incident involving a vehicle and pedestrians so close to Christmas.

Armed police stand guard at the edge of the cordon, which marks the point at which the suspect drove away from the scene.

Two friends, Stacy and Karolina, told me they had come to light candles and remember those who had been killed. "This is just a small place", said Stacy. "You never imagine this could happen."

Footage posted on social media appeared to show the presumed driver being held by several officers next to the damaged car. Police have been questioning the suspect, who was alone, and has been identified by German media as Bernd W.

Initial indications "suggest that psychiatric problems possibly played a role", prosecutor Peter Fritzen told reporters. The man did not have a criminal record, had no fixed address and was living in the car, which had been lent to him by someone else.



Earlier, Mayor Wolfram Leibe said up to 15 people had been injured, some of them seriously.

"We [had] a driver who ran amok in the city... I just walked through the city centre and it was just horrible. There is a trainer lying on the ground, and the girl it belongs to is dead," he told a news conference.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a statement: "The news from Trier is very sad. My sympathy goes to the relatives of people who were torn from their lives so suddenly and forcibly. I also think of those who have suffered severe injuries and I wish them much strength."



The incident has shocked Trier, a medieval city of around 110,000 people and 720km west of Berlin, near the border with Luxembourg. A Christmas market that is usually held in the area was cancelled this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but shops were open.

Bollards that would usually be in place to protect the pedestrianised area because of the Christmas market were therefore not put up.

The case brought back memories of the 2016 attack in Berlin when an Islamist militant drove a hijacked truck into a Christmas market, killing 12 people and injuring dozens of others. He was shot dead by Italian police four days later.

[pieter]

[pieter]

Here you see how the German police arrested the attacker who drove his car into pedestrians killing 5, including a nine-week-old baby girl, three women, aged 25, 52 and 73 and the 45-year-old father of the baby.

[Jaga]

sad story that repeats and repeats again and again with bad conquequences since some people die for no reason.

[karl]

Pieter

This case is so very repulsive as of a case of extreme negligence and extreme failure of personal responsibility. This man was not the vehicle owner, and was living in it with no fixed address, yet,,the man had the money to get drunk. Whilst doing so, was operating a motor vehicle whilst under the influence of alcohol and whilst doing so, in an negligent manner, caused the death and injuries of innocent people.

It is with good trust the courts will not give him any options, but find in judgement all that the laws have to offer in punishment.

To say he has psychiatric issues is no excuse.

Karl

[pieter]

Karl,

When you are disciplined as I am I have to say that I have experienced recless driving of people in the Netherlands under influence of alcohol and hard drugs on the high ways and city roads and country roads as well in the sense of reports about it and a few cases of pscyhopathic driving of compatriots and once I jumped for my life into a hedge when a lunatic black car with some hoodlums raced towards us a the side of the road leaving us no space. I shouted 'Jump for your life' to an Arnhem friend of mine and thank good he made the same decision as mine and also jumped into the right direction, the hedge. Total lunatic people with psychiatric disorders (psychosis), large doses of alcohol or people who used Speed, Cocaine, Crack or Crystal meth who are driving are moving killer cars.

I remember the many times that after a manifestation, festival night, exhibition or sport event in the afternoon, evening and at night when I drove the Ford Transit and later the Renault KANGOO with colleagues who could drink beer, wine, champagne, a jenever ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenever ), vodka's, cherry's, Gin and tonic, a Dry Martini or whiskey's I had to stay, cooperate, build up and break down the radio set and antenna and often tv equipment, and drove back with tipsy or rather drunk colleagues. Not a drop of alcohol, because I was the "designated driver" (called BOB in Dutch). In those cases I was and am responsible, drink Coca Cola, Seven Up, Mineral water or zero-alcohol beers. It take zero risks in those cases. I have to drive people and equipment and am exhausted myself and have to have a clear head and drive safely. I am responsible for my colleagues and other people on the road. I drove people back safely to their homes (sometimes carying their bycicles in the Ford Transit), and went back to the office late to return the radio equipment, the monitors, sound boxes, the mixing consoles, amplifiers, sound systems, lamps, microphone sets and standards and the radio the antenna.


Me with our Radio & Television Arnhem (Broadcast Corporation) Ford Transit and my dear colleague Jan Willemsen (my old pal for many years)



I France (Montpellier & Nice), Belgium, the Netherlands and probably Poland I have witnessed drunken driving. My Polish grandfather was killed by a drunken Polish driver on a Zebra's crossing in Poznan in 1977. I hated when stupid lads in Amsterdam after drinking heavy Belgian Duvel (Devil, Triple) beers and rum drove back to their Castricum town in North Holland after having a fun night for themselves in Amsterdam. Totally mad, crazy and irresponsible. One of these lads also drove drunk on a Motor scooter. An irresponsible idiot. Heavy accidents occur(-ed) when there are people who drive on drugs, alcohol or in a psychotic (Manic) psychiatric state. These people should be heavily punished, put in a mental institution or behind bars for a long time.

Cheers,
Pieter