2 Dead in Horrific Bus Crash

A routine cross-border bus journey turned deadly Saturday afternoon, January 11, 2025, when a Flixbus coach carrying 14 people overturned in severe winter conditions on Germany’s A11 motorway, killing two passengers and leaving four others fighting for their lives in nearby hospitals.

The bus “veered off the road due to adverse weather conditions and then overturned” on the A11 highway near Prenzlau, located north of Berlin in the eastern German state of Brandenburg, according to police reports

Rescuers working in freezing temperatures fought to free passengers trapped inside the overturned vehicle, eventually breaking through the shattered front windshield to reach the victims. Emergency response teams found two passengers, a 29-year-old woman and a 48-year-old man, had died in the crash. Four others sustained life-threatening injuries, while seven more passengers escaped with minor injuries. 

The coach, operated by Germany’s dominant long-distance bus carrier Flixbus, was attempting to enter a parking lot near the Uckermark triangle and Schmölln junction interchange when the accident occurred. The bus had departed Berlin earlier that afternoon for what should have been a routine two-hour journey to Szczecin, Poland, a trip covering approximately 93 miles. 

“According to current information, 13 passengers and one driver were on board this bus,” Flixbus officials confirmed in a statement following the crash. All survivors were rushed to local hospitals in the Brandenburg region for treatment and observation. 

As darkness fell and temperatures continued to drop, a large contingent of rescue workers remained at the scene, their emergency vehicles’ lights illuminating the crash site while investigators began their work. Police diverted traffic from the motorway section toward Schmölln as criminal investigation teams collected evidence from the ice-covered roadway. 

Police are investigating the extent to which the slippery road surface, the speed of the coach, and gusts of wind were responsible for the accident. Investigators are collecting trace evidence at the scene and evaluating the coach’s speed records.

The accident marks a deadly pattern for Flixbus operations on German motorways. In March 2024, a similar crash near Leipzig claimed four lives and left 35 passengers injured when a coach veered off the road and slammed into a line of trees. That incident followed a May 2019 crash on the Berlin-Munich route that killed one passenger and injured more than 60 others, seven critically. 

Brandenburg police continue their methodical investigation of the crash site, analyzing skid marks, impact patterns, and meteorological data from the time of the accident. The investigation will take several weeks as authorities work to prevent similar tragedies on this busy international route.

━ latest articles

━ explore more

━ more articles like this