Thread: Switzerland coach crash kills 28, including 22 children

At least 28 people - including 22 children - have been killed in a bus crash in Switzerland, police say.

Another 24 children were injured in the accident in the Valais canton, near the border with Italy.

The bus - which was carrying children from Belgium - crashed into the wall of a tunnel. Both drivers were killed.

The children from the Belgian villages of Lommel and Heverlee were returning home after a skiing holiday. There were 52 people on the bus.

Some of the injured were later flown to hospitals in Lausanne and Berne.

A helpline for families has been set up, and many parents are expected to arrive in Switzerland shortly.
BBC News - Switzerland coach crash kills 28, including 22 children

Originally Posted by klong toey

The bus - which was carrying children from Belgium - crashed into the wall of a tunnel. Both drivers were killed.

Do tunnels have drivers too?

Long haul coaches are obliged by law to have a minimum of 2 qualified drivers aboard. This one was returning from Switzerland to Belgium.

Very sad news. My condolences to all the families.

At least 28 people - including 22 children - have been killed in a coach crash in a tunnel in Switzerland.

Another 24 children were injured in the crash near Sierre, in the canton of Valais, close to the border with Italy.

The coach, carrying 52 people back to the Belgian towns of Lommel and Heverlee following a skiing trip, struck a wall in the tunnel head-on late on Tuesday.

Belgian PM Elio Di Rupo said it was "a tragic day for all of Belgium".
'Incomprehensible'

The bus crashed shortly after 21:00 (20:00 GMT) on Tuesday.

In Brussels, the Belgian foreign ministry said most of the children were aged around 12, and the bus was one of three hired by a Christian group. The other two reached Belgium safely.

The children had spent a week skiing in Val d'Anniviers in the Swiss Alps.

Those on board the bus that crashed were from the Stekske primary school in Lommel, close to the Dutch border, and from St Lambertus in Heverlee, near Leuven, with Belgian media saying the numbers were roughly even.

Ten of the children involved are Dutch, the Dutch foreign ministry said, with all but one of them living in Belgium.

Belgian Transport Minister Melchior Wathelet said the company that ran the coach, Toptours, had "an excellent reputation".

He said: "The drivers had arrived the night before and had rested during the day before departure. It seems that the law on driving and rest periods has been respected."

Both the drivers were among the dead.

Distraught relatives have been arriving at the schools in Belgium, with identification of the dead and injured still not complete

The coach hit a kerb and then swerved into what is a "stop lane" inside the tunnel. It appears to have then carried on and hit the wall at the end of the lane. Judging by the catastrophic destruction of the bus and the loss of life, this was at a very high speed indeed.

This tunnel is viewed as one of the safest - a motorway tunnel with two lanes each way and a divider so traffic is not facing head-to-head. It looks as though there were no other vehicles involved in this accident.

Although there have been safety questions over some of the more elderly Alpine tunnels, with just two lanes facing each other, this was not one of those. This was a newer tunnel with a lot of safety features - escape lanes, escape telephones, and it's very wide. There should be enough space for traffic not to hit the kerb.

surprisingly, because the swiss are normally excessively saftety conscious, there doesnt seem to be an armco barrier to prevent a vehicle slamming into that green painted wall.

terrible accident, i suppose the design of these coaches should really be revised to offer some protection to those sitting in the forward sections, but accidents will always happen.

Belguim has the worst drivers in Europe drive far to fast which seems to be the case here very sad the amount of deaths.