As of: February 26, 2024, 11:34 a.m
By: Johannes Welte
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Rock thunders on car.
Inmates survive, cow in trailer is slaughtered.
© feuerwehr-abtenau.at
A farming couple in the Salzburg region had incredible luck: a rock weighing several tons fell on their car and hit the hood in front of their eyes.
Abtenau – A farmer (49) and a farmer (47) missed certain death for a few seconds in Tennengau in Austria.
A rock weighing around ten tons fell 100 meters above the slope and hit the car.
Rock fall in Tennengau (Austria): A rock weighing tons crashes onto a moving SUV
The couple was driving their SUV on Lammertaler Straße (B62) near Abtenau im Tennengau on Sunday evening around 7 p.m. - a popular summer and winter holiday destination.
The couple had a livestock trailer with a cow in tow.
Unbeknownst to them, they passed a concrete rock barrier when the four cubic meter rock broke loose above them, thundering through the forest and crushing everything in its path.
Austrian couple escapes death by seconds: the rock crushed everything in its path
It also broke through the concrete rock barrier and crashed into the hood of the car in front of them.
A moment later the rock would have thundered onto the car at the level of the driver and passenger.
The rock hit with full force, smashed the engine compartment and rolled a few meters before coming to rest against the guardrail on the other side of the road.
The driver and passenger initially couldn't believe what was happening.
“He and his 47-year-old passenger were injured to an unspecified degree as a result of the impact and were taken to the Cardinal Schwarzenberg Clinic after first aid from the Red Cross,” according to the Salzburg police.
The hospital is located in Schwarzach im Pongau.
The 49-year-old's vehicle was badly damaged.
Firefighters can hardly believe the couple's luck
“It can be said that we are very fortunate that personal injuries were limited in this incident,” the Abtenau fire department said in a press release.
The cow in the trailer was hit much harder, being thrown forward by the sudden stop of the trailer.
The farm animal, which was no longer able to walk, had to be reloaded into another trailer by the emergency services in the presence of a veterinarian.
According to ORF,
the animal later had to
be slaughtered.
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The state geologist was called in, he examined the demolition site and ruled out any danger from further rockfall.
The fire department then helped load the totally damaged vehicle onto a tow truck and tow the animal trailer to an alternative location.
The road maintenance department temporarily repaired the rockfall protection with concrete protective walls and repaired the road damage with cold asphalt.
Eerie series of rock falls and earthquakes in Austria
A wheel loader cleared loose stones from the road.
“Since the boulder could not be removed from the road, it was secured with barriers,” the fire department concludes.
In St. Johann im Pongau, also in the Salzburger Land, a 500-ton rock had almost rolled onto a road a week and a half earlier.
At the beginning of February, several tons of rock broke out of a rock face on the Birnhorn in the Leoganger Steinberge.
The region was shaken by a series of earthquakes.