A total of 10 cars were involved a big wreck at the Nordschleife yesterday, Sunday.
The demanding track was open for tourist laps, where private drivers without race cars and without racing licence have the possibility to drive on the track.
The accident started when a sportscar lost some fluids on the track and made it very slick. There isn’t as many flag marshalls out as on a normal racing event, so the drivers arrived at very high speed, into the Fuchröhre section of the track, about 6 kilometres into the lap. They couldn’t keep their cars on the track and hit the Armco and the already stranded cars.
A total of 9 people in the cars were injured, with two receiving serious injuries. About 30 rescue workers helped with the recovery, like a medical emergency car, 5 ambulances and an emergency helicopter. Furthermore the police was out in force, since all the driving is happening under normal rules for the road – without speed limit however.
The damages are believed to be several hundred thousands of Euro, and several of the cars won’t ever be cars again, since the rescue workers had to extract two people out of the cars.
As previously mentioned, there isn’t a high demand for the cars and the drivers during this kind of driving. With a price of only 30 Euro per lap in the weekend, or 25 Euro on week days, a lot of people are attracted by the speed and the challenges in “The Green Hell”. The only demand is that the car has a number plate and insurance, and it can drive a minimum of 60 kph. There is no demand for helmet, and you can be as many as you want in the car, as long as there is a seatbelt for everyone.
There was a fatal accident in May 2017, but crashes with serious repair bills is a daily thing happening. In case of damage to the Armco, the driver and/or his insurance will have to pay that too.
There is the option to rent a car for about 200 Euros. That is a much safer choice since they have roll cages. But you have to cover damage costs of up top several thousands yourself.
The safest way of getting around the 20 kilometres long track is in a Ringtaxi, where you can be passenger in a BMW, Audi or a Porsche, which are piloted by every experienced drivers. You can get a lap of between 249 and 299 Euros. That way you can experience the track in a fast but safe way – even when you are not behind the wheel yourself.
