‘Help!’: Car crash into trampoline injures boy, leaves car in barn roof

The car was embedded high in the gable wall of the barn after the accident. Photo / X

A car veered off a road at high speed and struck a trampoline in a German town, seriously injuring a boy who was playing on it.

The car, said to be a Volvo SUV, left the road in the town of Bohmte, in western Germany, on Saturday evening local time before colliding with another vehicle and tearing through a hedge.

It hit the trampoline and embedded itself in the roof of a barn in a low-lying garden, Deutsche Welle, the German broadcaster, reported.

A 43-year-old female passenger and a 7-year-old boy who had been playing on the trampoline were seriously injured. The boy was said to be in a critical condition in hospital.

Pictures from the scene showed scattered debris and a twisted trampoline.

The car appears to have already been airborne when it hit the trampoline because of the difference in height between the road and the lower-lying garden.

It is understood the vehicle’s weight means it could not have bounced off the trampoline.

Volvo SUVs vary by model but can weigh between 1600kg and 3400kg (1.6 to 3.4 tonnes).

“There was a massive clatter and we just thought: ‘Help! What has happened?’” a resident of Bohmte told Deutsche Welle. “Then we ran outside and saw the car in the roof.”

Daniela Viss, another resident, told TV7 News: “I heard this massive crash and thought: ‘Holy cow, what just happened?’ We rushed outside and saw the car stuck in the roof. The mother was just screaming. My boyfriend called the ambulance and police right away.”

Olga Folik, also a resident, told the German newspaper Focus: “I went over to the neighbour’s house – an ambulance was already there. I only saw the fence and the garden destroyed. And the car stuck in the barn on the second floor. I just thought, how can something like that happen?”

She suggested that all the children involved in the car accident knew each other and had previously played together.

The car driver is said to be a 42-year-old man, with three boys – aged 11, 12, and 13 – in the back seat. The driver and all three boys sustained only light injuries.

Several dozen emergency service workers were sent to the crash scene, including 12 ambulance crews and two helicopters, Deutsche Welle reported. “This is clearly an extraordinary deployment,” said a fire brigade spokesman.

It remains unclear what exactly caused the accident, but investigators ruled out drink-driving after taking blood samples from the driver.