31 vehicles damaged as truck driver crashes through red light

An intoxicated truck driver rammed his vehicle into parked cars after ignoring a red light in southern Germany, pushing vehicles up against buildings and causing some of them to catch fire, police said. Three people were slightly injured and 31 vehicles damaged in the incident in Fuerth, just outside Nuremberg, on Tuesday evening. The truck driver first skipped a red light, touching a car that was at a crossroads in the process, and carried on without stopping, according to a police statement.

Shortly afterwards, the truck rammed several parked cars and pushed them forward, some of them into the walls of buildings. The collisions caused several cars, the facade of a house and the truck itself to catch fire. The house was evacuated.

The driver, a 50-year-old Turkish citizen with no permanent residence in Germany, was arrested at the scene, police said.

A breath alcohol test showed he was several times above the limit for driving, they added.

The truck driver, the driver of the car he touched at the red light and a passer-by were slightly injured.