After fatal accident

Mourning for couple: “Fate can be so brutal”

A couple died in this silver Suzuki Hybrid. All the immediate measures taken by the fire department (in the photo, commander Andreas Kundegraber, right, Manuel Pfeifer) and the rescue team could do nothing more.(Bild: Christa Blümel)

Horror the day after in the municipality of Ilz: on Easter Monday, a Styrian man (80) and his wife (84) were killed by a snapped tree - they had not the slightest chance of survival.

Tuesday lunchtime on the L404 near Ilz. There's not much traffic on the country road, which was only renovated a few years ago. The wind is blowing, quite a bit, but it's a gentle breeze compared to the violent storms of the previous days.

Markings on the road bear witness to the accident, on one side there are branches of what must have once been a mighty tree, on the other its stump sticks out of the forest floor. A few meters further on, the game fence is deeply dented. This is where a couple died on Easter Monday: a man from Fürstenfeld and his wife, aged 80 and 84, on their way to Ilz.

Deputy Mayor August Friedheim shows the scene of the accident: "We are very saddened"(Bild: Christa Bümel)

During the storm, an ash tree - one that was "fresh in the sap", not rotten - had crashed onto their windshield, caving in the roof and throwing the badly damaged silver Suzuki Hybrid into the forest. "Our team was on the scene in no time at all," says Andreas Kundegraber, commander of the Ilz fire department.

The hydraulic shears were used to gain access to the couple from Fürstenfeld as quickly as possible. However, all help came too late for the couple.

(Bild: BFV Fürstenfeld)

The fire department during the rescue(Bild: BFV Fürstenfeld)

"A second sooner or later - and nothing would have happened to anyone"
The following day, the town was deeply shocked. "Fate can be so brutal!" says August Friedheim, the second deputy mayor of Ilz. He muses: "One second earlier or one second later - and nothing would have happened to anyone."

One second, that's like when you turn around on your way out and think about whether you've blown out the candles and turned off the stove anyway. One second that decides your fate. And that was enough to tear the pensioners out of life.

Because it's on our doorstep
But why does this death in particular affect us so much? "Because it could have happened to any of us," says pastoral worker Regina Stampfl from Heinersdorf. It also shows us our own vulnerability. "The hostages in Gaza or the kidnapped children in the Ukraine war are far away - but this happened on our doorstep ..."