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Tuesday 12, March

Woman and young child killed in traffic accident near Mall of Berlin

Berlin pedestrian lobby groups are demanding answers after a woman and her young son tragically died after being hit by a speeding car in the city centre.

Photo: IMAGO / Frank Ossenbrink

Tuesday 12, March

Woman and young child killed in traffic accident near Mall of Berlin

A mother and her young son were tragically killed in a major road accident on Leipziger Straße on Saturday. Now, representatives from various road safety advocacy groups are demanding consequences, as reported by Berliner Zeitung.

According to police reports, the 41-year-old woman and her 4-year-old son were crossing the road near a construction site between the Federal Council and Mall of Berlin around 10:14am on Saturday. They were hit head on by an 83-year-old male driver in a Ford Mondeo. The elderly man was driving well over the 30km speed limit. According to witnesses, he had sped towards a traffic jam then swerved into the cycle path to try and overtake the other vehicles.

The mother and child were critically injured and passed away some hours later in hospital. The driver was only slightly injured and had been discharged from hospital, and a blood sample showed that he was sober. The partner and sister of the 41-year-old woman both witnessed the accident. It’s now been established that the family were on holiday in Berlin from Belgium.

A vigil organised by the Verkehrsclub Deutschland Berlin and the Fuss e.V association (groups which lobby for the rights of pedestrians in road traffic) was held on Sunday afternoon. At the gathering, Roland Stimpel, a spokesperson of Fuss e.V association criticised Transport Senator Manja Schreiner (CDU), saying: “You have announced that you want to raise the current speed limit from 30 to 50km here on this stretch of road as well as on 29 other main roads…Yesterday should have opened your eyes at the very latest.”