Bavarian road notorious for fatal accidents cured by 'invisible radiation rays'

The town council of Willmering in northeast Bavaria hired a local water diviner to fix the problem road where deadly crashes took place over a period of months. Helmut Gerbert was offered £1,300 to fix the traffic black spot, but only after a heated row by local officials whether to go ahead with this unorthodox method of accident prevention. After some debate, a majority voted in favour of the proposal.

"The was no universal acceptance of it, but the council decided we could afford the money and it wouldn't make Willmering poor to spend €1,800," Werner Vogel, the chairman of the town council said.

"Some of the crashes were caused by reckless driving, others by carelessness, but they were all different," Vogel added. "Nobody had an idea what we could do. Then Herr Gebert approached us to offer his services," he said in a Times report.

All the accidents happened on the same 3km (1.86 miles) stretch of Bundestraße 22.

Gebert's website describes himself as a nature and water researcher as well as a spiritual healer. His explanation for the accidents was that radiation caused by underground water channels was negatively affecting drivers as they drove over a section of road, which momentarily distracted them.

The water diviner told councillors to hang wooden boxes from three trees on the boundary of the road. Within the boxes, three circular white dishes with metal poles were positioned, sticking up from the centre, according to The Local.

Gebert said this would stop "invisible radiation rays" as the devices neutralised the "left turn of the water radiation" which conflicts with the "rightward motion of our bodies' inner cycles". The alternative healer admits that his success is "more likely to be coincidence", although the scheme has worked with the road remaining accident-free since 2008.