Louis Majesty at sea (photo: Louis Cruise)
A Louis Cruise ship with 1,350 passengers and nearly 600 crew on board, the Louis Majesty, was hit by what the company has called “rogue waves” of up to eight metres, off the northeast coast of Spain. Two people were killed and six injured, with windows broken in the saloon and water taken on board. The ship has pulled into Barcelona, but will later continue its voyage to Genoa, Italy. The captain says there were winds up to 100kph in the area.
Links to other sites: BBC, El Pais (Spa), Louis Cruise
Nice drive if everyone goes the same way
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A 72-year-old woman had her driver’s license taken by police after she drove about 4 kilometres the wrong way on the A9 autoroute Sunday evening 28 February, in heavy traffic, near the Bex Nord junction. The woman, apparently in a confused state, hit another car and caused minor damage. Her own car had a flat front right tire. She then continued to drive along the road that heads towards Simplon, but going the other way, towards Lausanne, in the passing lane during heavy Sunday evening traffic.
Update 10:05 Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The A1 autoroute, in the direction of Geneva, is closed between Rolle and Gland due to an accident involving a large truck. Officials say the road will remain closed until at least 11:30 and traffic, which is badly backed up, is being diverted to the N1 (lake road).
Belgium’s train drivers went on strike Tuesday unexpectedly 16 February, following the rail accident south of the capital Monday that killed 18 people and injured dozens of others. The workers are striking to draw attention to worsening job conditions, they say, which can compromise safety and lead to accidents.
SCNF has special site, phone line for French trains affected
Bern, Switzerland and Paris, France (GenevaLunch) - Rail traffic between France and Belgium has stopped and rail authorities say the interruption could last all day Monday 15 February, following a violent head-on collision of two trains south of Brussels. The Eurostar and Thalys are particularly affected.
The accident killed more than 20 people and there appear to be many serious injuries, but authorities have not yet provided official figures. The crash occurred around 08:30 Monday morning during rush hour, with the two trains were filled with commuters.
View from Neuchatel-Chaux de Fonds train Tuesday late afternoon: icy roads, plenty of snow
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A 67-year-old man and the conductor plus 97 passengers of a TGV traveling between Bern and Paris were happily unhurt when the man’s car, stranded on a TGV line near Bayards, canton Neuchatel, was hit by the train. The accident occurred Tuesday evening 9 February at 20:35, say police. Train service on the line was re-established only at 17:30 Wednesday evening. Travelers scheduled to take the TGV via Neuchatel were shunted to Basel and Lausanne for other trains.
The man had lost control of his car, which skidded onto the rails and was stuck there.
Didier Cuche (image: Swiss Ski)
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Didier Cuche, 35, one of Switzerland’s best skiing hopes for the upcoming Olympic Games in Vancouver, had surgery Saturday 30 January to mend his right thumb, broken in a fall close to the finish line in Kranjska Gora, Slovakia, during Friday’s World Cup Giant Slalom race. Doctors in Zurich said after the operation that they are very pleased, have put in a plate and seven pins to stabilize it and he should be able to start training again within days. Cuche may be able to join the team in Vancouver, but he and doctors will talk about this further in a press conference Sunday.
Cuche also injured his left knee, an MRI scan showed, but doctors expect him to be able to take up training despite several slight injuries to the knee.
Cuche is currently the world’s top-ranked downhill skier and he is in third place overall. He ended third in World Cup rankings for the 2008-2009 season. A week before his accident he won the legendary Kitzbuehel race in Austria.
Links to other sites: About.com, FIS international ski federation, Swiss Ski
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - 20 Minutes earlier reported an accident involving several cars near the Perly exit on the contournement (bypass) stretch of the autoroute in Geneva, not far from the airport. One lane was closed and traffic badly congested for two hours, but police say traffic is now back to normal in the area.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A red car that ran a light near Geneva’s Cornavin train station Wednesday at 20h30 injured a scooter driver and caused a major snarl in traffic in the area. The scooter driver and a motorcyclist both hit the car, but the motorcyclist was uninjured. Buses were rerouted and formed a long line along the Rue de Lyon, reports the Tribune de Geneve. Trams were able to continue along their usual routes.
Rougement, Vaud, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A gondola on the Videmanette cable car in Rougement, near Gstadd, disconnected from its traction cable shortly after leaving the upper station and fell 30 metres, Vaud police said Sunday 17 January, in a press release. No one was in the four-person gondola and there were no injuries. The cable came off its rail as a result and the system was stopped while it was moved back on, in order to evacuate some 70 people who were in 14 other gondolas on the system. Police believe the accident was due to a technical defect, but the Swiss federal transport office is investigating.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Myles Robinson, the 23-year-old British tourist whose body was found late Monday 28 December, had a “high level of alcohol” in his blood, 2 per 1,000 (200mg alcohol/100ml blood), canton Bern police announced late Wednesday, without providing his name, the norm for crimes and accidents in Switzerland. He had been drinking at a bar in Wengen before he walked a friend home, then disappeared. Initial tests showed no signs of drugs. The autopsy did not give any indication that a third party was involved in his death.
Ed. note: the alcohol level was four times that allowed for drinking and driving in Switzerland.
Police are strongly urging the public to stay away from the area where he fell and where his body was found. The weather has warmed up and there is a serious danger of ice and rock falls. The notice to the public is unusual, but the initially inexplicable disappearance and the nature of his death have prompted huge public interest, particularly among foreigners in the area and Britons in particular.
US golfer Tiger Woods suffered facial injuries in an accident that occurred just outside his home in the early hours of Friday. The Guardian reports that “Police said the incident was not alcohol related but in what is a standard procedure added that ‘charges were pending’.” The Los Angeles Times notes that the accident, with Woods hitting a fire hydrant and then a tree, at under 33 miles per hour, was not related to a domestic quarrel. Police report that they arrived at the scene of the accident to find Woods and his wife Elin, who had bashed in the rear window of the car with a golf club, but the accident report was filed only 12 hours after the crash. Why Woods was leaving home at 02:25 remains a mystery. The accident occurred a day after The National Enquirer, notorious for its stories about celebrities, published an article suggesting the golfer had an affair with another woman: the newspaper’s online version of the story was unavailable at the time GL posted this article.
Links to other sites: Guardian, UK, Los Angeles Times, National Enquirer
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A late night accident on the lake road near Geneva, a young driver with too much alcohol in his system, the driver of the other car in serious condition: accidents of this sort happen often enough that they rarely make the front page of Swiss newspapers.
Add in a Lamborghini, other flashy cars, rich children of Russian commercial celebrities and a story with international headlines surfaces. Stir in local political squabbles plus what looks to some people like rich foreigners fleeing the country in the face of Swiss justice, and a continuing headliner of wealth, incompetence and scandal is born.
Geneva media, police, lawyers exchange barbs
An accident which took place 19 November in Genthod, between Geneva and Versoix, has not only made headlines, it is putting Geneva police, authorities and Swiss media in the hot seat. Wednesday 25 November Geneva’s public prosecutor, Daniel Zappelli, said he had received a police file on the case, nearly a week after the accident and the day after he complained that he had received nothing. He has now officially opened a criminal investigation.
The media say police and officials reacted too slowly but the lawyer for the accused, a Geneva police spokesperson who talked to GenevaLunch and officials have expressed dismay at local media for hyping an event without facts. Jacques Barrillon, who represents the 22-year-old driver of the Lamborghini, told Russian journalists that “The story is being inflated in every possible way, just because it features nice, expensive cars, millionaire parents and foreign passports.”
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The two guides who worked with a military team scaling the Jungfrau when an avalanche hit and killed six in the group now face the possibility of a new trial. The prosecutor in the case Wednesday 25 November filed an appeal against the judgement last Thursday that acquitted the two guides, who were awarded damages.
Background: Guides acquitted in Jungfrau military accident, 20 November 2009, GenevaLunch
Bern / Chur, Graubuenden, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Two guides who have been on trial for their part in the deaths of six soldiers during a military mountain training expedition on the Jungfrau have been acquitted. They were on trial in a Swiss military court for involuntary manslaughter and for not observing military regulations.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A violent crash between a Lamborghini Murcielago and a Volkswagen on the Route de Lausanne at Genthod late Thursday 19 November sent the Volkswagen driver to hospital with a concussion. No one else was injured. An eyewitness to the accident told 20Minutes that several expensive sports cars seemed to be involved in a high-speed race along the stretch of the Route de Lausanne between the roundabout at Creux de Genthod and the entry to Versoix.
The Volkswagen was not participating, and turned over several times when hit by the Lamborghini, before coming to rest.
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Passers-by discovered the body of a 58-year-old man from canton Vaud on the shore of Lake Neuchatel, near du Nid-du-Crô, Neuchatel Sunday afternoon, 20Minutes reports. Police speculate he may have slipped off the end of the pier.
Bellevue, Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Geneva police are asking witnesses of an accident that took place Tuesday morning 10 November on the Route de Lausanne in Bellevue to contact them. A motorcyclist, a Genevan, age 76, was heading from Versoix towards Geneva when a woman, Cuban, age 52, pulled out of a side road at numbers 317-319 on the main road. The man, surprised by the car, braked suddenly and skidded on the wet pavement, into a minibus heading in the direction of Lausanne, driven by a Portuguese, age 47. The motorcyclist was airlifted by Rega to a hospital, where he remains in critical condition. Police contact: +41 22 307 91 11.
Le Vaud, Vaud, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A 10 year-old boy lost control of his scooter and bumped into a car in the little village of le Vaud near Nyon, 13 October. He was pronounced dead on arrival at Lausanne university hospital, Chuv.
Link to other site: 20Minutes
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Two military tribunals that have been investigating separate accidents which killed six soldiers on the Jungfrau in July 2007 and five soldiers in the Kander river in June 2008 have pressed charges. The cases against three men, one a commanding officer and the other two mountain guides who were hired to work with the army, go to court in Chur in November 2009. The men charged risk up to three years in prison, according to news agency ATS.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The A1 autoroute at the Villars-Ste-Croix/Crissier junction near Lausanne was closed Sunday afternoon shortly after a 22-year-old Vaud motorcyclist was killed when his bike went off the road for reasons that are not yet clear. The young man was heading in the direction of Crissier when his bike went into a post that is part of the security barrier in the centre of the road.
Clos-du-Doubs, Jura, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Two motorcyclists were surprised by a bend in the road in separate accidents within an hour of each other, between Essertfallon and Soubey. The first fell but was uninjured but the second was hospitalized after colliding with an oncoming vehicle, reports 20 Minutes (Fre).
Yverdon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The driver of a Suzuki Duro quad was hit by a military truck at a roundabout on the Mathod to Montagny road, near Yverdon early 11 August. The quad driver was taken to the Chuv university hospital in Lausanne where he was reported to be out of danger. Two people died in quad accidents in Vaud in 2008. Quads are street legal, but built for off-road use. In Switzerland there are very few places where quad owners can legally ride off-road.
Related: 24 Heures
A bus trying to overtake on the road from Harare to Masvingo in Zimbabwe, 88 km south of the capital, overturned after a head-on collision, killing 33 people. The country’s roads are in very poor condition after years of neglect and traffic controls are rare.
Altenstadt, Germany (GenevaLunch) – A Swiss soldier was killed and another injured in a parachuting accident that appears to have been due to the two crashing into each other. The injured man is in stable condition. The two men were participating in an international sports event.
