The death of a cyclist in Berlin has been moving politicians and citizens for days. The debate focuses primarily on the questionable methods of climate activists. But the reasons for the accident are more complex – and many aspects are left out.
A Berlin woman’s bicycle accident sparked heated debates throughout Germany about the “last generation” of climate activists. Are the climate stickers to blame for the death of the 44-year-old? Is it okay to block roads and throw pulp at paintings in the name of climate protection? Can fighting for a good cause endanger human life?
Brief review: On October 31, 44-year-old Sandra Umann was run over by a concrete mixer on Berlin’s Bundesallee, three days later she succumbed to her serious injuries. The climate group “Last Generation” had glued itself to a street that day, causing a traffic jam. As a result, a special vehicle that could have lifted the concrete mixer only came to the scene later, as a report by the fire brigade shows.
For many, the question arises whether the woman could have been saved if the climate activists had not blocked the road. And even if not: Doesn’t the case show that human lives are endangered with such an intervention in road traffic?
Proponents and opponents of climate glue argue about this, as do politicians and rescue workers. Even FDP Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann and Chancellor Olaf Scholz have spoken out. Other aspects of the accident are often ignored or insufficiently discussed. It doesn’t do justice to the tragedy.
The accident process itself is still unclear. Apart from the fact that the 64-year-old concrete mixer driver was attacked by a man with a knife after the accident and was taken to hospital injured himself, his role in the accident has received little attention. Bicycle accidents involving trucks are anything but rare: just last year, Berlin resident Cindy Bohnwagner died on her way to work when she was also run over by a cement mixer on her bicycle.
The two women are not the only ones: cyclists regularly die in Berlin’s traffic. According to the ADFC Berlin, ten cyclists died in road traffic last year. Six of them were killed in a collision with a truck. Sandra Umann’s accident on Bundesallee this year was the eighth of nine fatal bicycle accidents this year.
In several cases, the victims were hit by a turning truck while driving straight ahead. It is not without reason that the ADFC has required turning assistants to be mandatory for all trucks since 2011. Since July of this year, new types of truck have only been approved throughout Europe with electronic turning assistants to protect cyclists. But vehicles that have already been registered do not have to be retrofitted.
So far, the regulation has been of little help to cyclists. It’s bad enough that the regulation comes so late, says ADFC Federal Managing Director Ann-Kathrin Schneider. “It’s much worse that the new regulation only applies to new truck types. This means that for years to come hundreds of thousands of old trucks without turning assistants will be on the road where children cycle to school, professionals to work and older people to go shopping. “
How the accident happened on Berlin’s Bundesallee and whether the concrete mixer had a turning assistant or not is still part of the investigation, according to the public prosecutor’s office in Berlin. “For reasons of tactical investigation, we cannot provide any information on this,” said their spokesman, senior public prosecutor Sebastian Büchner, ntv.de.
However, it is already known that at the point where the cyclist had an accident, she was riding on the road and not on the cycle path. Why is unclear. Her sister Anja Umann said she also asked herself this question: “Why did you do that? Why weren’t you on the bike path?” She said in an interview with “Spiegel”.
At the same time, she notes that there is a large construction site just before the intersection, forcing cyclists to move onto the street. After that, it’s difficult to get off the road and back onto the bike path. “On the Bundesallee, the cycle path after the intersection where the accident happened is very bad, I know that,” said Umann. Like her sister, she travels a lot on her racing bike. “Before riding the bumpy track on a racing bike, she prefers to switch to the road.”
Berlin has been trying to make road traffic safer for cyclists for years. But many stretches and intersections are still death traps for cyclists. In the Friedrichshain district of Berlin, a total of four people died at the same intersection in 2021. The traffic junction consists of a total of 21 intersecting car lanes and has “no protected infrastructure for vulnerable road users,” criticizes the Changing Cities association. “Cyclists only have stripes painted on them to separate them from the fast turning cars instead of protecting them, and not even everywhere.” A well-known problem in Berlin, but so far there has been no outcry.
A Berlin paramedic spoke up about the debate on Twitter. There he attacks the double standards that he sees behind the critics of the climate activists: “Every day we rescue workers are stuck in traffic. Every single damn mission,” he writes in a tweet that got more than 11,000 likes. The reasons for this are far ahead of any protests: “Wrong parkers, ‘second row parkers’, construction sites and a lack of rescue lanes”.
Blaming the climate activists is “disrespectful to the accident victim, hypocritical, mendacious and inflammatory,” says the paramedic, who wants to remain anonymous. If cyclists are seriously to be better protected, measures must be taken such as “car-free inner cities, turning assistants, separate bicycle lanes and compulsory helmets”.
The two men who glued themselves to the street on Bundesallee are 59 and 63 years old. So anyone who speaks of “climate children” or criticizes the “radical youth”, as was often done after the accident, draws a wrong narrative. Nevertheless: In the meantime, it can be considered proven that the special vehicle could have reached the scene of the accident faster without a traffic jam – even if it was initially said that the emergency doctor had decided against lifting the cement mixer. The police have therefore charged the two members of the “Last Generation” with obstructing road traffic.
Anja Umann doesn’t care whether the activists’ blockade had an impact on her sister’s rescue or not. “It doesn’t change the fact that this vehicle didn’t have the opportunity to be there earlier due to the blockade. The fact that it was obstructed still exists,” she told the “Spiegel”. “And it could just as well have been that this vehicle could have saved my sister’s life, as was initially assumed.”
Apart from the question of whether the climate activists of the “last generation” are partly to blame for the death of the cyclist or not, it is good that Sandra Umann’s case is getting so much attention. That was different with the far too many other accidents in which cyclists were killed. Because there needs to be more talk about how such tragedies can be prevented in the future.
