On the way home

Cobra Crashes Into Chancellor’s Limousine on the Highway

His official car sustained property damage, but the chancellor was unharmed (file photo)(Bild: Pressefoto Scharinger/Daniel Scharinger)

Major pileup on the Westautobahn near Ansfelden in Upper Austria! In slow-moving traffic on Friday afternoon, three vehicles collided. Right in the middle of it all: Chancellor Christian Stocker. 

The Chancellor was on his way home from Vorarlberg, where he had attended several appointments. But the long drive between Vorarlberg and Wiener Neustadt was about to provide a moment of shock. In the heavy afternoon traffic, a traffic jam formed on the “West” – and subsequently, a traffic report announced an accident!

Braked too late
The Chancellor’s driver was unable to brake in time and rear-ended the car in front. Stocker’s security detail was in a vehicle behind—and in turn crashed into the rear of the Chancellor’s limousine. All three cars sustained property damage, but fortunately no one was injured.

“The Chancellor is fine,” his office stated in response to a query from “Krone.” Nothing stands in the way of his official trip to India next week. On the other hand, someone in Austria can now claim to have been “run over” by the Chancellor... 

Not the first accident of this kind 
There has been a nearly identical accident involving a Cobra on the A1, also in Upper Austria: In 2016, the driver of then-Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka had to brake abruptly due to a traffic jam. The driver of the following car, which was carrying Sobotka’s bodyguards, was unable to slow down quickly enough and rear-ended the black official vehicle.