Driver Seriously Injured

A momentary lapse of attention—then the car plunged into this stream

(Bild: ff-badischl.at)

He says he dozed off at the wheel—a near-fatal mistake for a 76-year-old man from Ebensee. The elderly man plunged seven meters with his Mercedes into the Höllbach stream in the Weißenbach Valley near Bad Ischl. A blessing in disguise: The seriously injured man was able to free himself. 

The spectacular accident occurred on Tuesday at 1:32 p.m. The driver from Ebensee was heading from Unterach toward the B145. According to his own account, he dozed off for a split second. The Mercedes veered to the right, hit the slanted end of a guardrail, continued sliding, and then plunged seven meters down into the Höllbach. The car came to rest on its passenger side in the one-meter-deep water.

Recovering the wreck presented the Florianis with several challenges(Bild: ff-badischl.at)

Almost a miracle
The seriously injured elderly man was able to free himself from the completely destroyed Mercedes. Eyewitnesses raised the alarm and administered first aid. By the time the Ischl fire departments arrived, the driver had already received initial treatment from the Red Cross. The 76-year-old was then admitted to the hospital in Ischl.

Difficult Recovery
The fire departments’ task was therefore to recover the wreck from the stream and contain the leaking fluids. However, this proved to be relatively complicated, as the car was submerged in the water about 15 meters below the bridge and was thus difficult to reach, according to the Bad Ischl Fire Department. The fire departments set up oil booms to contain the leaking fluids and prevent environmental contamination. At the same time, the car was recovered from the creek bed using a crane from the Bad Ischl main fire station and handed over to a towing company.