It looks like a wagon and drag driver lost his trailer on the A7 (Ulm-Kassel) in Germany and drove on for 40 kilometers before he realised he wasn’t towing it anymore.
welt.de/vermischtes/article1 … etern.html
Does this happen a lot then?
I bloody hope not, as I’m planning to put one on the road later this year 
No, it doesn’t.
Simon:
No, it doesn’t.
That reassures me somewhat. I don’t have to look out for trailers flying off all over the autobahns.
The strange thing is about the things which have caught my attention enough recently that i felt readers on this euro driving forum would appreciate them is that whenever I’ve driven through Germany (I’ve never done it commercially but have traversed the country often nonetheless) I’ve had no problem whatsoever. Never been held up behind a multi-vehicle pile-up, can’t recall ever seeing a Rettungsgasse (although there was certainly one in those photos of the pile-up yesterday) and I’ve generally found driving over there a great deal easier and freemoving than I do over here.
Out of interest, are there any suggestions as to what might have caused this trailer to break away? Could it have been prevented for example?
Sometimes I would notice that and sometimes I wouldn’t, depending upon my attention level at the time. Tiredness is my biggest enemy.
Red Squirrel:
Out of interest, are there any suggestions as to what might have caused this trailer to break away? Could it have been prevented for example?
Looks like a classic case of material failure.
Should have been picked up by the Austrian TÃœV (MOT)
Red Squirrel:
Simon:
No, it doesn’t.That reassures me somewhat. I don’t have to look out for trailers flying off all over the autobahns.
The strange thing is about the things which have caught my attention enough recently that i felt readers on this euro driving forum would appreciate them is that whenever I’ve driven through Germany (I’ve never done it commercially but have traversed the country often nonetheless) I’ve had no problem whatsoever. Never been held up behind a multi-vehicle pile-up, can’t recall ever seeing a Rettungsgasse (although there was certainly one in those photos of the pile-up yesterday) and I’ve generally found driving over there a great deal easier and freemoving than I do over here.
Out of interest, are there any suggestions as to what might have caused this trailer to break away? Could it have been prevented for example?
You posted a list of multi-vehicle pile-ups in Germany recently.
Now consider how many miles/kms of autobahn there is in Germany.
Then compare the difference in milage in UK and the number of pile-ups we have.
Don’t forget to factor in the business of UK motorways in comparison to Germany (so just naturally slower) and the speed limits for our two countries.
I’ve been going to Germany for 10 years and I lived in Germany for another 7.
I’ve never seen a multi-vehicle pile-up in the hundreds of thousands of km I’ve done there, although I have seen the results of quite a few accidents.
As a general rule, things in Germany are much the same as they are in UK, other than that they drive on the wrong side of the road and talk a strange language
Simon:
Red Squirrel:
Simon:
No, it doesn’t.That reassures me somewhat. I don’t have to look out for trailers flying off all over the autobahns.
The strange thing is about the things which have caught my attention enough recently that i felt readers on this euro driving forum would appreciate them is that whenever I’ve driven through Germany (I’ve never done it commercially but have traversed the country often nonetheless) I’ve had no problem whatsoever. Never been held up behind a multi-vehicle pile-up, can’t recall ever seeing a Rettungsgasse (although there was certainly one in those photos of the pile-up yesterday) and I’ve generally found driving over there a great deal easier and freemoving than I do over here.
Out of interest, are there any suggestions as to what might have caused this trailer to break away? Could it have been prevented for example?
You posted a list of multi-vehicle pile-ups in Germany recently.
Now consider how many miles/kms of autobahn there is in Germany.
Then compare the difference in milage in UK and the number of pile-ups we have.
Don’t forget to factor in the business of UK motorways in comparison to Germany (so just naturally slower) and the speed limits for our two countries.I’ve been going to Germany for 10 years and I lived in Germany for another 7.
I’ve never seen a multi-vehicle pile-up in the hundreds of thousands of km I’ve done there, although I have seen the results of quite a few accidents.
As a general rule, things in Germany are much the same as they are in UK, other than that they drive on the wrong side of the road and talk a strange language
As I said above, I’ve never had any problems driving in Germany. The list I posted on the other thread was based on a german news article and the pile-up in Rostock in April 2011 was said to be the worst for two decades. It was included alongside articles about yesterday’s incident on a couple of german news websites to highlight the worsening trend. My experience of travelling in Germany is certainly a better one than travelling in the UK. Less traffic, better service areas, trains that run on time, simple and convenient U-bahn/S-bahn systems, cars with both headlights working, etc, etc. and that’s because Germany is a first world country like the United Kingdom used to be. It’s because of the better driving conditions in Germany that I find the number of pile-ups so shocking.