Five Scotland fans injured in horror crash after 'forgetting Germany drives on right'
14 June 2024, 13:00 | Updated: 14 June 2024, 14:45
Five Scotland fans travelling to Euro 2024 have been injured in a head-on car collision after allegedly forgetting that vehicles are driven on the right side of the road in Germany.
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Emergency crews, including four ambulances rushed to the scene on Thursday night, and pictures from the scene show multiple casualties being treated on the road and on a grass bank.
The fans had taken a flight from Edinburgh and picked up a rental car from the airport. Reports say they ended up smashing into a black Mercedes and its driver was also treated at the scene for injuries.
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A source told the Daily Record: "They landed in Weeze with Ryanair from Edinburgh at 11pm. They picked up their rental car directly at Weeze Airport, packed numerous suitcases and drove off, but forgot that in Germany you drive on the right.
"At the airport, after just a few hundred metres of driving, they crashed head-on into an oncoming Mercedes. All five football fans were injured, some seriously, and had to receive emergency medical care at the scene of the accident before being transported to various hospitals.
"Numerous rescue teams were on duty until 2am this morning; the two vehicles were totally damaged and had to be rescued."
Scotland, who have never made it out of the group stage in their previous 11 tournament appearances, open the Euros against the hosts in Munich tonight.
They also face Hungary and Switzerland in Group A with an estimated 100,000 fans making the trip.
A spokesman for German police said: “On Friday (June 14, 2024) at around 10 a.m a traffic accident occurred on the airport ring in Weeze, in which two people were seriously injured and four people were slightly injured.
“A 25-year-old Scotsman was traveling with four other men from Scotland (25, 23, 23 and 23 years old) in a rental car, a Citroen C3, after arriving at the airport to travel on to Düsseldorf. The five men were a group of friends who had traveled to Germany for UEFA EURO 2024.
“On the way from the terminal towards the exit, the man from Scotland drove in the lane for oncoming traffic. This resulted in a head-on collision with a Mercedes Benz S-Class driven by a 45-year-old man from Düsseldorf who was traveling towards the terminal.
“Based on the investigations as part of the accident report, it is suspected that the Scottish driver used the wrong lane due to the left-hand traffic in his home country. The driver of the Citroen and a 23-year-old passenger were seriously injured in the accident, while the driver of the Daimler-Benz and three other people in the Citroen were slightly injured. All of the people were taken to various hospitals in the region by the emergency services.
“As the driver who caused the accident was suspected of being under the influence of alcohol, a blood sample was taken from him in the hospital. The Citroen was seized to protect the property."
