The quay railing that separates Querstrasse 24 from the north harbor basin has been broken. Two torn metal pipes on the right and left limit the gap, which was temporarily closed by police tape and mobile wire mesh walls. In front of it, people laid flowers, lit grave candles and left pictures of a young, happy-looking man. “I will miss your cheerful nature very much,” reads a handwritten note. The young man was sitting with four friends in the car that fell over the edge of the harbor basin six meters into the water on Friday evening for reasons that are still unclear. He died at the age of 18 as a result of the accident. A 17-year-old female passenger is in critical condition in hospital, police say. Three young people, some seriously injured, were able to escape to the shore.
It was the largest rescue operation in recent memory. If people fall into the Main, the rescue services are immediately alerted: DLRGfire department, police. This is especially true if a car sinks in the river. It is clear to every rescuer that it is a matter of a few minutes, or in the best case, a matter of seconds. And the chronology of the rescue on Friday evening also reflects the event in all its drama.
The fire department was alerted at 10:17 p.m., one minute after witnesses of the accident called the emergency number, a spokesman says. Three minutes later the DLRG was at the harbor basin, the lifesavers happened to be nearby on a supply trip. A staircase leads from the quay wall six meters down to the water, which, according to the police, is 3.10 meters deep. Divers from the professional fire department finally arrived at 10:26 p.m. and began searching in the murky water of the harbor basin. At around 10.40 p.m. the two people were rescued after they were no longer able to swim to shore on their own. They were still in the water at this point. Any help came too late for one of them. A crane was also requested. Two hours after the accident he pulled the car out of the Main.
The scene of the accident is a popular meeting place
On Monday morning, the barrier with meters of tape still bears witness to the accident that happened at this point. The cross street is not cordoned off like other parts of the Osthafen. Passers-by often stop at the scene of the accident and day-trippers get off their bikes. They share what little is known about the accident. Some of them make their own assumptions. It is still unclear how a car driving parallel to the quay wall can suddenly break through the railing at a right angle and fall into the Main. No signs of braking or accidents. Almost as if the car had started from a parking position in front of the opposite wall of the house and drove directly towards the water, presumably at high speed, from just 15 meters away. But why?
Several residents say that Querstrasse 24 is a popular evening meeting place for young people with cars. They then parked in the loading bays in front of the warehouses that are lined up along the harbor basin with a view of the water. There are always lots of nitrous oxide cartridges lying around there in the morning.
Amid the babble of voices, a young man approaches late on Sunday afternoon, sits cross-legged on the floor directly in front of the photos of the accident victim and puts his head in his hands. He has his back turned to passers-by. Other young people arrive, apparently classmates of the accident victims and students at the Carlo Mierendorff School in Frankfurt. They all belonged to the same grade.
School sets up “room of silence”.
“Our thoughts are with his family and his fellow students, some of whom were seriously injured,” it says on the school’s website. On Monday there should be opportunities for students and teachers to talk and a quiet room where they can retreat.
From the perspective of the parent representatives at the school, it is important to “give space to the sadness, the helplessness and the questions,” says Sabine Balk, who is involved in the parents’ council of a tenth grade class. “Such a tragic event affects the entire school community, whether students or teachers. Everyone is affected.” Balk is confident that teachers will take up the topic in class and talk to young people about it. This is particularly important in the year group of the affected students: “I know that in the Carlo Mierendorff School this has been successful so far in drastic events and that there has been a sensitive, appreciative approach.”
When school principal Nicole Schiffer-Brams found out about the accident at the weekend, she immediately activated the school’s internal crisis team and the school psychological crisis intervention team at the state education authority. “Since this morning, our students have been looked after by their teachers, the school pastoral care, the youth welfare service at school, our UBUS staff and the school psychology team,” says the headmistress. UBUS staff are social educators who are deployed in Hesse to provide “support during lessons”.
Schiffer-Brams recommends that parents and guardians seek professional support if they observe behavioral changes in their children in the next few days, such as anxiety, social withdrawal or insomnia. For an initial consultation, parents can contact the school psychologists, who will be at the school until the end of the week.
The port authorities also commented on the accident on Monday. “The incident in Osthafen 1 shocks us very much. We are deeply saddened by the death of the eighteen-year-old and express our sincere condolences to his relatives. Our thoughts are with the seriously injured seventeen-year-old as well as with all others involved and their families.” The company also said it was supporting the police investigation “with all the means at our disposal.”
The investigations are running at high intensity. As a spokesman for the Frankfurt police headquarters says, all information has been collected since the weekend in order to get a reliable picture of how exactly it could have happened that the car drove into the Main. There is no further information about this yet. The standard procedure is to check whether there is video surveillance on the site that has recorded what happened. In addition, the witnesses are still being questioned. This also included the survivors. But this should be done calmly, with the necessary sensitivity.
