Wuppertal - Caution, risk of accidents in the cemeteries! After the icy winter tilt in the Rhineland dozens, several hundred-pound tombstone. They break easily from their foundation pedestals. For visitors, a life-threatening risk.
The worst accident: In the Bavarian village Mette tipped a tombstone on a girl of seven. The 150-pound plaque on the resting place of the grandmother killed the small pupil.
Not unique. In Bernau (Brandenburg), a 72-year-old rejected the Greenspace to the stone. The tilted against the neighboring tomb. The hand of the pensioner was trapped for hours the man was hanging down with four broken fingers.
Petra also Piorek (35), cemetery manager in Wuppertal-Sonnborn (5000 graves), aware of the risk of severe giant "falling over tombstones can draw serious injury. Just imagine what happens when such a 300-kilogram stone fall on someone's head. Then there are the dead. "
Someone who wants to avoid it is the Wuppertal Udo Peters. He invented the "tipping Tester", which excludes since accidents in cemeteries. As can be seen quickly, whether gravestones are so loose that it threatens to fall over in the near future. Two people with a device press the "tipping Tester" with the test set against the stone. If the predetermined force of 300 newtons (31 pounds) is reached, it beeps. Once a year the graves to be examined.
"With the harsh winter will come again this year to loose stones," says Piorek. "The break simply from above the foundation base. Bad: According to the Horticultural Trade Association has a third of all gravestones damage.
Thanks to the "tipping tester" can be risk-graves (to lock in an emergency filter out). In half of Europe, the device is already used. Even in Perth, Australia, the Wuppertal invention is used.
