At the Verkehrszentrale Südwest of the federally owned Autobahn GmbH in Stuttgart-Feuerbach, Marion Mayer-Kreitz and early-shift operators watch dozens of screens covering autumn drizzle on Baden-Württemberg motorways. The branch is responsible for 1,050 kilometres of autobahn. About a quarter of that, roughly 250 kilometres mainly around Stuttgart and on the Alb plateau, can be managed with temporary speed limits, warnings for fog or skid risk, and hard-shoulder running. Until police reach a crash scene, the operators can also be the contact for rescue services.
During a morning shift, a colleague confirmed skid risk from wet roads in Ulm with the police and set digital signs on the A8 to 80 km/h. Behind Karlsruhe, traffic toward Pforzheim was queued, blue lights were flashing and police were on scene at what was apparently a crash. Mayer-Kreitz, head of the traffic centre, also watched a crow in the trade-fair tunnel and judged that it could stay as long as it did not disrupt moving traffic.
Twelve autobahn tunnels, plus nine more on federal and state roads, are monitored from Stuttgart if they are longer than 400 metres. The Engelberg tunnel on the A81 between Ludwigsburg and the Leonberg triangle carries up to 140,000 vehicles a day, has been a construction site for several years and is repeatedly the scene of crashes.
On 3 March a serious fire started with a burning tyre on a semi-trailer loaded with refrigerators. The driver noticed the fire shortly after entering, stopped, and the whole trailer eventually caught fire. Thick smoke quickly blocked the view of people in the tunnel and of staff at the monitors. A lorry driver stuck behind the scene later told Regio TV that he had feared for his life and had already said goodbye to his family in a voice message. Several people were injured and the rescue service cared for 30 people, but nobody was killed. Safety equipment was destroyed over several hundred metres and the west tube stayed closed for weeks.
Mayer-Kreitz said her colleagues had acted very quickly and correctly: the tunnel was closed and people were warned by announcements at the right moment. Southwest branch director Christine Baur-Fewson, who saw the video, said she was shocked that smoke was already coming out of the tunnel while drivers were still entering.
Traffic now runs both ways again, but the tunnel remains a bottleneck. At the end of September a 45-year-old overturned after first clipping another vehicle and then the tunnel wall. The suspected cause was a moment of sleep; witnesses said the driver had already been travelling fast and recklessly before the tunnel. The motorway was fully closed, the queue reached 10 kilometres and the delay was about an hour. The traffic centre advised drivers at the Weinsberg interchange who were heading toward Ulm and Munich to use the A7 if possible.
Germany’s official road-safety aim is Vision Zero, meaning no deaths in traffic. The Federal Statistical Office recorded 2,832 road deaths last year, including 292 on autobahns. Mayer-Kreitz says a limit of 80 km/h uses motorway capacity best because there is less braking and acceleration and vehicles can travel closer together.