Passengers were Canadian tourists from Ontario, a group of retired people
Update 15:30 Sion, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Police in canton Valais are seeking witnesses to an accident that left two bus passengers dead and 28 others injured, four of them in serious condition. The passengers were a group of Canadians, mainly retired people, but police and the Canadian embassy have not released further details or names. Sunday afternoon they announced that the two people who died were from Ontario, a 71-year-old man and his 67-year-old wife. The others in the group have asked not to be contacted by media, police say.
The accident occurred near the village of Reckingen (map) and while the region is at a high altitude, the Goms Valley in this area is flat and the roads are mainly a long straight run. The roads were dry at the time of the accident, which occurred at 10:00. The driver, a 73-year-old German man, had no alcohol in his system, tests showed, say police.
The driver told police that shortly before the accident a motorcycle had overtaken the bus on a straight stretch of road. A group of motorcyclists had passed the bus shortly before and police believe the biker may have been trying to catch up with the group. He or she was wearing dark clothes and a dark helmet. The bus veered to the right onto a soft shoulder, overturned, going down a shallow (two metres) ravine.
The group was heading from Zermatt to Austria via the Furka Pass.
Police are investigating if the passengers had their seat belts attached at the time of the accident. Four helicopters. 12 ambulances and 40 firefighters were sent to the scene. The injured are in four hospitals around the region.
Anyone with information is asked to contact police: +41 27 326 5656.
Police and the Canadian Embassy have put in place a help line reserved for families affected by the accident: 0848 112 117, or from outside Switzerland: +41 848 112 117.
Ed. note: TSR‘s story carries a photo of the overturned bus, showing the area where the accident occurred.
This work by genevalunch.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported.
News story, GenevaLunch, 13 June 2010.
Tags: accident, bus, Canadian tourists, Conche Valley, Goms Valley, motorcyclists, Ontario, Reckingen, Switzerland