A tragic bus accident in the Ore Mountains left a ten-year-old boy dead and 13 others injured. The unfortunate incident happened in Sehmatal, Saxony, when the bus collided with a winter service vehicle and then smashed into a tree.
Rescue workers tried valiantly to save the young victim, but his severe injuries proved fatal at the scene. All passengers on the bus were hurt in the collision, including the 45-year-old bus driver and a 59-year-old girl. Eleven other kids and adults, ranging from eleven to 39, experienced mild injuries.
Early Tuesday morning, the school bus picked up passengers in nearby villages before encountering trouble on a slippery slope. It hit a gritting vehicle and plowed into a tree, causing extensive damage to the front of the bus. The driver had to be extracted from the wreckage by the fire department using heavy equipment.
Christian Piwarz, the Ministry of Education in Saxony, expressed his sadness following the fatal accident. He assured that psychological support would be provided to the affected children, including counseling sessions at after-school care centers.
Severe bus accidents have unsettled the public in the past. For instance, in western Thuringia, a school bus carrying over 20 children skidded, overturned multiple times, and claimed the lives of two eight-year-olds in January 2020. In October 2015, a school bus crashed on the highway near Erfurt, resulting in a five-year-old boy's death and multiple teenagers being seriously injured.
Authorities have begun investigating the cause of the crash, considering the slippery conditions on the roads from rain and black ice in the high regions of Saxony. Reports suggest that the precipitation was transformed into rain by a warm layer of air around 1500 meters in the morning, resulting in extremely hazardous driving conditions.
