From a pregnant woman to a class on a school trip, the toll in Berlin was huge after a car rammed into pedestrians on Wednesday, leaving one dead, six people in danger – including a child – and dozens more injured. “One of the girls has been in the operating room for hours. Almost every bone in her body has been broken.”
It was a trip they had been looking forward to for a while, their two-day school trip to the capital Berlin. But for the 24 students of the tenth grade (comparable to our fourth high school, so around 16 years old) of the Kaulbachschool in Bad Arolsen, in the Nordhessen region, the city trip turned into a real hell in a few seconds.
A gray car made its way through the group. Students and teachers were dragged along. Their 51-year-old teacher remained motionless at the zebra crossing, she did not survive the blow. A male teacher and twelve students were also seriously injured in the blow, one student is in danger of life.
Village full of Belgians
“The village is in shock,” says Caroline Bourry from Herentals. She comes from a military family, who also live in Bad Arolsen. Which is no surprise: until 1994 there was a Belgian barracks there and 2,000 Belgians lived there. After the closure of the barracks, many Belgians continued to live there.
“A relative is also in that class, my cousin’s stepbrother. He was hit, but luckily only suffered minor injuries. One of the girls has been in the operating room for hours with a skull fracture. She has broken almost every bone in her body,” said Caroline. “That girl is really unlucky. This is the second time she has been hit like this. She went through the same thing in 2020.”
Two years ago, in February, a 29-year-old man deliberately drove into the carnival procession in Volkmarsen. At that time 154 were injured. “A lot of fellow villagers were there at the time… And now again, the second time in the wrong place.”
Hesse Education Minister Alexander Lorz (CDU) announced that “emergency response teams were sent to the village to support family members, classmates and teachers”. And a crisis meeting was immediately organized at the school with the local emergency services and management, Caroline says: “Buses were brought in with psychologists and parents to go to Berlin. Several hotels have also been booked to help the young people and their parents on the spot.”
In addition to that one class, many more were injured. For example, a pregnant woman is said to have broken her hip, and an as yet unknown number of victims escaped with minor injuries.
Also see: Teacher dies in Berlin, student group badly hit
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