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Torsten Roder (43) normally deals with people who have been seriously injured in accidents in the emergency room. “Now I have had an accident myself,” the certified emergency care expert tells Blick. But he knew exactly what to do if he suddenly got black ice in the car so he wouldn’t be seriously injured or even killed. “I was also lucky and only suffered a small scratch on my head, a bruise on my upper body and abrasions.”
The accident happened on Wednesday evening, shortly after midnight, in Bruggerstrasse at the entrance to Bad Zurzach AG. “I was on my way home from the Limmattal hospital, where I work,” says Roder, who lives with his wife (41) and his two children (4 and 12) in Küssaberg (D), near the border.
Spectacular accident
Then it happened: “Everything went well on the Zurziberg and it was not freezing,” Roder remembers. But as he drove downhill, about 100 meters after a bend, he noticed it was getting slippery. The weather was crazy then and there was black ice on the road.
“I was completely surprised and the car started spinning,” Roder continues. He then drove at a speed of about 70 km/h towards a concrete pillar on route 80. “I knew from my work that I now had to hold the belt I was wearing against my chest, pull my legs up and make myself completely stiff had to make.” The reason: in the event of a collision, the engine block is usually pushed into the foot area. Roder: “There are often serious leg injuries.” And: “I knew the power that would come my way.”
Roder eventually crashes his red 1984 VW Golf CL, which has no airbag, into the concrete bollard on the side of the road. “After the impact I fell over and landed on the roof with the car,” says Roder. According to the Aargau cantonal police, the Golf then rotates “several times around its own axis” and eventually comes to a stop on the roof. “I didn’t think about anything, I just worked and immediately loosened the belt.”
Roder falls out of his seat belt and pushes the door open. He knows the car could catch fire at any moment. “I had already smelled gasoline and my clothes were wet.”
Suddenly another car slides by
He already had his legs outside. But then came the next danger: Roder saw that a car – partly due to the black ice – skidded and came towards him. “I pulled my legs back in and the car hit my Golf, which was pushed further,” he says. According to Kapo Aargau, it was “probably a gray Volvo” whose driver decided to continue driving and will be searched on Thursday.
And Redder? “When I crawled out and realized I had hardly any injuries, I was relieved.” As a precaution, he took out the fire extinguisher he had in the Gulf. Police and ambulance were quickly on the scene. Roder was taken to a hospital. “After a few hours I let myself go because I wanted to go home to my family.” Of course, she is also very happy that nothing worse happened to him. «The first thoughts only came home. It was definitely a minor miracle that I didn’t even break anything.”
“This happens quickly with lightning ice”
Roder is currently on sick leave. “I still have pain in my chest and my head hurts,” he says. He will now relax a bit, get back up and then go back to work. He makes no accusations, for example about the maintenance service. “With lightning ice, this happens quickly. No one is to blame, because this is force majeure.”
The loss of the old Golf rather hurts him: “I am very attached to it because I love old cars,” says Torsten Roder. But he also knows: “In the end, nothing happened to me, that’s what matters.”
Source: Blick
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
