Van bursts into flames on D1 highway, triggering pile-up — traffic toward Brno completely blocked

A major incident shut down the D1 motorway between Šternov and Psáře this morning: a minibus carrying nine passengers caught fire, and shortly afterward one driver failed to react in time to the resulting tailback, crashing into several stationary cars. According to police, traffic heading toward Brno at the 47th kilometre of the highway has been completely closed off.

Police spokeswoman Michaela Richterová said the accident was reported before 8:00 a.m. Firefighters were first on the scene, working to extinguish the burning minibus — all nine people on board managed to get out in time and were unharmed.

However, the fire caused traffic to back up, and one driver was unable to brake in time, ploughing into several cars that had already stopped ahead. “Since vehicles are scattered across all three lanes, we had to close the highway completely at the 47th kilometre,” the police spokeswoman explained.

According to preliminary reports, there were no serious injuries in either incident.

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Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz