ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – The motor of a Belgian bus carrying 45 passengers, including 38 school children on a ski trip to Italy caught fire just before the entrance to the Gotthard tunnel, en route from Gotthard to Göschenen, Tuesday 8 January at 05:00, but the driver was able to park in the emergency lane and evacuate the passengers.
The children, ages 10-12, are continuing their trip with another bus. Traffic was sent onto the two-lane highway for an hour while the area was cleaned up. Police say the estimated damage to the bus was CHF12,000. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
A Belgian bus returning home after a ski trip to Switzerland in March 2012 crashed in a tunnel at the start of the A9 autoroute in Sierre, canton Valais, for reasons that have never been determined, killing 28 people, 22 of them schoolchildren.
