The Berlin police have filed criminal charges against two climate activists of the “last generation” for obstructing rescue work. The activists had blocked a freeway on Monday. This prevented a rescue vehicle from the fire brigade from rushing to the aid of a seriously injured accident victim in time.
After another obstruction of emergency vehicles by a road blockade for an unauthorized climate protest action in Berlin, two activists of the “last generation” are now facing possible criminal consequences. “We have filed criminal charges against those affected because of the obstruction of rescue work,” said a spokeswoman for the Berlin police FOCUS Online Tuesday afternoon on request.
The activists had blocked the A100 city freeway at various points on Monday morning, with several people sticking their hands to the roadway. In one of the traffic jams caused by the protest action, a rescue vehicle from the fire department, which was on its way from a fire station in Charlottenburg with blue lights on to a rescue operation in the Wilmersdorf district, also got caught.
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The rescue vehicle was intended to rescue a seriously injured person who was trapped under the heavy vehicle after a collision with a concrete mixer on Bundesallee. The victim is a 44-year-old woman, the spokeswoman said on Tuesday. The woman is still in mortal danger.
Meanwhile, the Berlin fire brigade is growing angry about the actions of the climate activists. “It is problematic that activists keep claiming that they are not responsible for the fact that no rescue lane is formed in a traffic jam, but the drivers,” explained Rolf Erbe, press spokesman for the Berlin fire brigade, to FOCUS Online on request.
It is true that emergency lanes are never formed in the traffic jams in Berlin’s city traffic, although drivers are obliged to do so by the road traffic regulations. At least he himself had never experienced this in his entire tenure. However, in traffic jams, drivers usually drive so close to the vehicle in front that there is simply no space left for maneuvering to clear an emergency lane, or the lanes themselves are simply narrow.
The fire brigade spokesman adds that he cannot accept the assertion that the activists keep hearing that a traffic jam is more or less irrelevant. “The problem with this traffic jam is that it would never have happened if the activists hadn’t caused it with a blockade for political reasons,” says Erbe. “The activists cannot simply ignore this fact cost human lives.”
