Death Toll in W. German Tanker Truck Crash Revised Down to 4

Police on Wednesday revised the death toll down to four in a gasoline tanker truck crash here as many people first believed killed in the inferno later turned up unharmed.

Herborn police, who initially feared that more than 30 had been killed in Tuesday’s accident, said all the people who had been reported missing have been accounted for after a daylong search of the ruins.

The accident occurred after the tanker truck drove off a nearby autobahn and entered Herborn, a town of about 22,000 people 50 miles east of Bonn and 80 miles north of Frankfurt.

Authorities said the bodies of two women were found in the charred downtown stores and houses and two other people died of their injuries in hospitals.

Thirty-eight people were injured, and 24 of them, including the tanker’s driver, were being treated in hospitals as far away as Cologne and Coblenz.

Police said many of the people initially believed killed had wandered away from the scene, some in shock, and were unaccounted for until Wednesday.

Forty people were left homeless after secondary explosions of natural gas lines virtually leveled three houses and damaged five others.

The accident occurred minutes before 9 p.m. Tuesday when the truck crashed into the wall of a complex containing an ice cream parlor, a pizzeria and a clothing store. The gasoline burst into flames, triggering secondary explosions of natural gas lines to adjacent houses.

Police said the truck’s driver said the brakes malfunctioned from overheating.