Ban ‘tank-like’ SUVS from cities, urge Germans after crash in Berlin kills four

Three-year-old boy and a British man, 29, among dead after Porsche driver ploughs into pedestrians

POLITICIANS in Germany have backed calls to ban SUVS from city centres after an accident in central Berlin in which four pedestrians were killed.

A three-year-old child and a British man were among the dead after a driver appeared to lose control of his Porsche Macan SUV at a red light and hit pedestrians at high speed on Friday.

A senior Green Party MP called yesterday for a nationwide ban on large SUVS in city centres amid fears the heavy vehicles are endangering lives on Germany’s crowded streets.

“We need an upper limit for large SUVS in the inner cities,” Oliver Krischer told Tagesspiegel newspaper. “Best would be a national law that allows local authorities to enforce size limits. There is an urgent need for debate on how big the cars that drive around our inner cities should be.”

Police are still investigating the cause of Friday’s accident, but have ruled out a deliberate attack.

The 42-year-old driver was seriously injured in the crash, and there were unconfirmed reports yesterday that police suspect that an epileptic fit may have caused him to lose control of the vehicle.

A 29-year-old British man was identified as among the victims yesterday.

The dead also included a three-yearold German boy and his grandmother.

Neither the victims nor the driver have been named under German privacy laws. Amid uncertainty as to the cause of the crash, public anger has turned on SUV drivers, and there have already been calls for a city-wide ban in the German capital.

“Such tank-like cars do not belong in the city. Every driving mistake means danger for the innocent,” said Stephan von Dassel, the district mayor for central Berlin. Experts have questioned whether the size of the Porsche played a role in Friday’s accident.

“You cannot say an SUV is fundamentally more dangerous than a Polo or a Smart car,” said Siegfried Brockmann, an accident researcher for the German Insurance Association.

The speed and nature of any collision generally play a more significant role than the weight of the vehicles involved, Mr Brockmann said.

But in the case of Friday’s accident, the Porsche hit a traffic light before ploughing into pedestrians, and there has been widespread speculation that the first impact may have been enough to stop a lighter vehicle.

Environmental activists seized on the crash to call for measures to discourage people from driving SUVS in urban areas. Jürgen Resch, the head of Environmental Aid Germany, a lobby group that has argued in the courts for diesel bans, called for tolls and parking bans for large SUVS in city centres.

A million SUVS are expected to be registered in the country for the first time this year.