A prominent member of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's party was slightly injured in a traffic accident in the early hours of Thursday morning as she headed back to Berlin for talks about the formation of a new government.

Police told news agency dpa that Saarland governor Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer's official car crashed into a truck on the autobahn just outside Berlin at about 4:30 a.m.

Kramp-Karrenbauer, her driver and two bodyguards were taken to a hospital in Potsdam.

Saarland state government spokeswoman Anne Funk said Kramp-Karrenbauer was only slightly hurt. Police said the other three weren't seriously hurt either.

Kramp-Karrenbauer is a member of the negotiating team for Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union in talks on a possible new government that entered their final round Thursday.

The 55-year-old had returned to Saarbruecken, the state capital close to the French border, for a New Year reception on Wednesday evening.

There was no late flight back to Berlin, so Kramp-Karrenbauer took the car for the 700-kilometer (435-mile) trip back to the capital.

The cause of the accident wasn't immediately clear.