When a traffic accident ends in fatality, it often hits motorcyclists. On the Easter weekend alone, at least eight people died in motorcycle accidents. Some of them were overlooked by motorists or were traveling at high speed, police said. Motorcyclists wore more or less serious injuries at numerous other places in Germany.

In North Rhine-Westphalia , six people were already killed in serious motorcycle accidents on the first weekend in April. In the first quarter of 2019, the number of motorized two-wheeler crashes had already increased significantly compared to the same period of the previous year.

"Many underestimate the long journey or the demanding routes"

Nationwide, more than every fifth road death is now a motorcyclist, although their share of road users is much lower overall. According to data from the Federal Statistical Office of February last year, there were 699 motorcyclists out of 3265 deaths on Germany's roads.

Too high speed, lack of knowledge of routes and overconfidence are common causes of serious accidents from the police's point of view. Often crashed out-of-town drivers, a police spokesman in Hochsauerland said. Thus, in 2018, three quarters of all accident victims in Sauerland did not leave the circle where the accident happened. Especially bikers from the Ruhr area or the Netherlands will be there in good weather. "Many underestimate the long journey or the demanding routes," warns the police.

The following fatal motorcycle accidents reported the police since Good Friday:

  • In churches in Rhineland-Palatinate , a 37-year-old biker probably died because of too high speed. The man cut a left turn on Saturday night, then had to avoid oncoming traffic and crashed, as the police said. He died at the accident site. The 37-year-old had no driver's license, the motorcycle was not allowed.

  • In Lower Saxony Posthausen happened according to the police Verden already on Good Friday a traffic accident in which a 20-year-old motorcyclist died. She had strayed off the lane in a slight curve and collided with the guardrail.

  • At Geislingen (Baden-Württemberg) on the tracks lost a 51-year-old on Easter Sunday in overtaking the control of his machine, as the police said. He hit the guardrail and was thrown into a meadow. A rescue helicopter flew the biker to a clinic where he died in the evening. At Rechberghausen, a 69-year-old biker died when he overtook a car with a trailer on a country road, which turned left at the moment.

  • In the vicinity of Biebergemünd (Hesse), a turning car driver, according to police, overlooked a 48-year-old motorcyclist who fell and died at the scene of the accident. On Motorway 3 near Frankfurt am Main, a 66-year-old motorcyclist crashed, initially unexplained. He died later in hospital.

  • At Quedlinburg (Saxony-Anhalt) a motorcyclist came in a curve on the opposite lane. There he collided head-on with a car and died at the scene of the accident. The same thing happened to a biker who had a fatal accident on Saturday near Elbingerode in the Harz region: According to police, he got into a right-hander on the oncoming lane and collided with a car there as well.