Oil has been strewn on a German road popular with motorcyclists this week, in what is thought to be an intentional attack.
The road is the B307 which runs alongside the Sylvenstein reservoir located in upper Bavaria. The website Motorrad reports that it is popular with bikers and, worse still forms part of the access route to the highly popular BMW Motorrad Days 2024 event. Motorrad Days 2024 runs from July 5 to 7 in the pretty Alpine town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. It will be bringing tens of thousands of bikers from across Europe to the event, and while this spill has since been rectified, it’s not clear if other instances of oil attacks could pose a risk to riders and other road users on two and four wheels.
The incident draws parallels with similar oil attacks in 2021 and 2022. Then, in a similar region, cooking fat or oil was apparently used to spoil the road surface at a hairpin bend. Motorrad also recalls the 2011 death of Josef Deniffel, who was killed after crashing his Honda Fireblade after encountering a so-called oil trap near Ottobeuren. In that incident, the rider slid into an oncoming car and died at the scene. Agonisingly, the perpetrator of the crime was deemed not responsible for the rider’s death, although they were ordered to be placed under permanent psychiatric custody and noted as a danger to the public due to their mental state.
Local police in the area are now calling on the general public to assist with their enquiries, and asking anyone who has information on who they could be to come forward.
