BERN, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss Scouts movement has been shocked by the death of a 13-year-old who fell 300 metres to his death during a hike Wednesday in canton Fribourg. Tighter controls were put in place a year ago by the group, reports TSR, to ensure the safety of young Scouts while nevertheless helping them learn to appreciate nature and the rugged outdoors.
A group of four youths, all age 13, was on a 48-hour hike from Charmey in Fribourg to Château-d’Oex in canton Vaud when the accident occurred in the area of Gruyere. One of them, from Bienne, slipped on the steep slopes, then fell. The others, in a state of shock, stayed put but were able to alert authorities.
Video, TSR (available only in Switzerland)
Update 5 August 13:00 LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – A motorcyclist died shortly after midnight Friday morning at the Chuv university hospitals in Lausanne following an accident near Ollon, canton Vaud. The 38-year-old Valais man was passing a line of cars on the cantonal road between Aigle and Bex Thursday evening at 20:18 when a car began to turn left and he hit the car at full speed.
The driver of the car suffered hand and eye injuries and was taken to a local hospital.
The critically injured man was airlifted to the Chuv and Vaud police closed the road to investigate. Anyone who can provide information to clarify how the accident occurred is asked to contact police at +41 21 644 4444 or to go to the nearest police station.
SION, SWITZERLAND – A 38-year-old Frenchman who was paragliding alone Tuesday above Zinal in canton Valais died when his sail suddenly collapsed and he was unable to get it open again, some 300 metres above the village football field.
Police say the accident was likely due to wind turbulence.
The man had taken off at 12:15 from the Corne de Parabois above Zinal.
He was at about 2,240 metres when his sail closed and he slammed into a rockface.
Air Glacier recovered the body.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A 92-year-old driver is in critical condition Thursday evening after his car was hit by a French SNCF train at chemin de la Montagne, à Chêne-Bougeries in Geneva. The car, with Geneva plates, was dragged by the Annemasse-gare des Eaux-Vives train several metres. The cause of the accident is not yet clear.
Photo, ©2011, Mr Kio on flickr
MOROCCO – At least 78 people were killed when a Moroccan military transport plane crashed into a mountain in the south of the country during bad weather, said the state news agency, MAP.
“Seventy-eight people were killed, and three were seriously injured following a crash, on Tuesday, of a C-130 aircraft of the Royal Armed Forces northeast the southern city of Guelmim,” the Royal Armed Forces (FAR) said in a statement to the state news agency.
King Mohammed VI sent messages of condolence to the families of the victims.
The crash is Morocco’s worst known air disaster since 1973, when 105 people were killed after a Royal Air Maroc aircraft crashed near the capital Rabat.
Further details: MAP.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Vaud Police are seeking witnesses to and information about an accident that occurred at 07:35 Monday on the A1 autoroute between Nyon and Coppet, in the direction of Geneva. No one was injured when a car spun several times but the driver of another car, who was earlier reported to have caused the accident, left the scene.
The driver of that car has now gone to the police and they are seeking witnesses to establish what exactly happened.
The initial report from the police noted that a woman driving a beige Mazda 636 in the right lane, going 110 kph, used her signals to move into the left lane. As she did so she noticed a gray Q5 Audi Break with Vaud plates come up rapidly on her tail, flashing its lights at her. The driver swerved to the right to pass her, then swerved back into the left lane, suddenly braking “violently” according to police. The woman was also forced to brake and she lost control of her vehicle, which then spun several times, hitting the central barrier, coming to a halt facing the wrong way in the left lane.
The other driver continued down the road.
Anyone with information that will help clarify what exactly happened is asked to go to the nearest police station or call 021 644 4444.
Woman was knocked 70 m down steep slope by her car door
SION, SWITZERLAND – A 63-year-old woman who lives in canton Vaud stepped out of her car on a mountain road to remove rocks on the road, and she suffered several broken bones after her car rolled into her. The door she’d left open knocked her 70 metres down a steep slope.
The accident happened Sunday night 18 July in canton Valais, near the Trient gorges, at 20:00. She was on La Crettaz road heading for Gueuroz. Her car rolled into a rocky wall on the road after hitting her and knocking her over, down the slopes and near the cliff leading to the gorges. She managed to call an acquaintance on her cell phone and say she had a shoulder injury and was unable to climb out.
A mountain rescue team and two Air Glaciers helicopters with a doctor were sent to rescue her. Police managed to get close to her on the difficult terrain and to maintain contact by telephone, while another person worked his way around to the area below the cliffs where she’d fallen.
She is in serious condition with several fractures, but her life is not in danger, say Valais police.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A huge blast at a Cyprus munitions dump at a naval base on the south of the island at 06:00 (local time) Monday 11 July killed at least 8 people. Some reports say 12 people have died and at least 38 were injured. It is being treated for now as an accident, reports the BBC, whose service to the Middle East was knocked out by major electricity cuts linked to the blast.
The explosion reportedly occurred after two containers of stored arms caught fire. The fire then spread to a nearby power plant, the country’s largest. Reuters reports that doors and windows were blown out at a resort 3km away.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A 14-year-old girl is reported by the Tribune de Geneve to be in serious condition after being shot in the stomach accidentally at 21:30 during a small party held Thursday evening at an apartment on the rue Robert-de-Traz in Florissant. The flat reportedly belongs to French-Swiss actor Alain Delon. The party was held by the 17-year-old son of the actor. All evidence appears to point to an accident, according to the Tribune, with the young people unaware that a gun in the home was loaded.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The bodies of three men and three women were flown out of the Plate des Agneaux area, in the Ecrins chain in France following one of the worst mountaineering accidents in the French Alps in recent history. The three were on a climb not noted for its difficulty, on a beautiful day, when the two groups of three people roped together ran into problems on the stretch that is reportedly the most difficult technical part of the climb.
The group was climbing to the Ecrins hut, but their bodies were spotted Sunday by a British hiker.
SION, SWITZERLAND – The death of fabled climber Erhard Loretan, who died 28 April on his 52nd birthday while climbing the Gruenhorn in canton Valais, was an accident, and the cantonal justice department has closed the case, TSR has revealed. The judicial report is available only to the families of Loretan and the 38-year-old woman, a client from Bern, who was climbing with him the day of his death.
The roped pair fell as they were climbing a ridge at 3,800 metres, for unknown reasons.
The woman was seriously injured and TSR reports that she is still traumatized by the accident and does not want to talk to the public about it.
Loretan was one of Switzerland’s most famous climbers who achieved world fame as one of the few people to climb 14 of the world’s peaks over 8,000 metres, died Thursday 28 April in a fall in canton Valais. He captured the world’s imagination in 1986 when he made a 40-hour ascent of Mount Everest at night, using no oxygen. He took 13 years, from 1982-95, to climb the 14 tallest peaks.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A 57-year-old professional gardener died after an accident at a client’s private property in Genthod at 10:00 Thursday 9 June. The man was trimming a hedge, riding on a the elevated part of a small tractor driven by another person, when the man lost his balance. He felt onto a metal post which pierced his torso, Geneva police say. Emergency services arrived promptly but were unable to save him and he died at the scene of the accident.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Traffic heading in the direction of Lausanne from Geneva came to a standstill Tuesday morning 7 June when a hefty 14-ton construction drilling machine on treads fell off the truck that was carrying it, and onto the highway. Both lanes of the autoroute were closed for two hours to allow an emergency crew to lift the machine out of the way and to repair the considerable damage done to the road itself.
The accident did not cause any injuries.
Vaud police say the tractor-trailer pulling the heavy load burst a tire shortly before the Morges exit, then began to sway back and forth, with the machine pulling loose from its moorings before tipping over into the other lane.
Traffic was backed up for nearly three autoroute stops during the morning and the lake road was packed with vehicles taking it as a detour.
Camel hitched to Swiss A9 autoroute bar, not an everyday sight
SION, SWITZERLAND – Drivers who had started sampling the goods at the Valais wineries Open day Friday 3 June might have wondered about the strength of the wine if they were on the A9 autoroute, where a camel and two horses were hitched to the safety bar on the median strip. Don’t worry, if you were one of those drivers: it was the real thing.
A 55-year-old Valais woman, driving a car and trailer from Martigny towards St Maurice at 12:30 Friday 3 June lost control of her vehicle and the trailer tipped over. Luckily, none of the occupants were injured, but police shunted traffic through the emergency lane while the passengers, two horses and a camel, were tied to the bar for the time it took to sort out the trailer and car.
Police from Valais and Vaud joined forces, with the accident happening near the border between the two.
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – The driver of a bus returning a group of 12- to 25-year-olds from a day at Europapark in Rust, Germany is in critical condition after the bus inexplicably crashed on its return trip. Fifteen of the young people suffered minor injuries after the bus veered off the A5 autoroute near Heitersheim, rolling 20 metres into the forest before stopping. Details, TSR, Fr
Ed. note: GenevaLunch, like most businesses in Switzerland, is taking a four-day weekend. Our news today is brief headline stories.
Car rolled 150 metres down steep slope, leaving passenger in critical condition
SION, SWITZERLAND – A 22-year-old passenger in a car that was parked in front of a nightclub in Montana-Vermala, part of the Crans-Montana resort area, is in critical condition after the car rolled down a steep slope.
The 24-year-old woman who was in the driver’s seat managed to free herself and get help.
Police are investigating why and how the parked car, for unknown reasons, began to roll, then went off the road and was only stopped some 150 metres below the road by a tree.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – A 33-year-old man on a motorcycle who had a violent head-on crash west of Yverdon Tuesday evening 24 May died Thursday at the Chuv university hospitals in Lausanne shortly before 01:00, Vaud police say.
The man’s motorbike headed left and into the path of an oncoming car as he was coming out of a bend to the right on the cantonal road between Essert-sous-Champvent and Peney, about 19:00 Tuesday. He hit the front left of the car, which didn’t have time to avoid him, and was thrown a dozen metres, landing at the bottom of a slope.
A Rega helicopter transported the critically injured man to the Chuv. Police have not provided information about his identity.
His death makes the fourth in one week on Swiss roads, two of them riding motorcycles.
Sion, truck overturned, narrowly missing sidewalk cafe
Sierre, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss sunshine, the Alps, and a morning cup of coffee at the local cafe in Sion nearly turned into something far messier than sand in the coffee, when a large truck carrying several cubic metres of sand inexplicably turned onto its side in front of a sidewalk cafe.
The truck appears to have hit a curb at an intersection on the Avenue de Tourbillon, say police in canton Valais.
The driver, a 35-year-old man from the area, suffered slight injuries but no pedestrians, customers or staff at the cafe, on a main street, were hurt.
Grandvaux man dies in Belmont, another man in critical condition from Cheseaux fall
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A 56-year-old Grandvaux resident was found on the road at noon by passers-by Sunday 8 May following an apparent cycling accident in Belmont and police are asking anyone with information to contact them. The man had suffered a fall and was unconscious. He was taken to the Chuv university hospitals but died of his injuries early in the afternoon.
Police say the circumstances surrounding his death are not yet clear. He was riding a black and blue racing bike, was wearing a helmet and had on cyclist’s clothes that were black, red and white.
Later Sunday a second cycling accident occured in the area: at 22:10 a 61-year-old man from the area took a hard fall while on the Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne road to Boussens, for unknown reasons. A passing driver providing emergency help, but the man suffered critical head injuries in his fall and was taken to the Chuv.
Anyone with information about either cyclist or the accidents is asked to phone police at 021 644 4444 or contact the nearest police station.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A 20-year-old garden service employee is at the Chuv university hospitals in critical condition Thursday evening 28 April following an accident with a tilling machine. He was working, with two other gardeners on the upper part of a garden, turning over the soil, when the machine became unbalanced. When he tried to straighten it, the machine caught his leg in the blades.
Five firefighters called to the scene by a police patrol cut him free of the machine; the accident also required an ambulance, a Rega helicopter and three fire department vehicles.
The young man is from canton Vaud, say police, without releasing further details.
Helicopter view of the "gigantic" avalanche near Ayer, canton Valalis, that left 3 dead 1 April.
Update 2 April Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A “gigantic” avalanche struck a group of nine people from Friedrichshafen, Germany Friday 1 April at 09:45 in canton Valais.
They were ski-touring in the region of the Montagne de Nava, near Ayer in the Val d’Anniviers.
Two people were killed and two others were sent to hospital. One of those hospitalized in Sion died later Friday from injuries.
Police Saturday morning said the victims have been identified. The three who died were men, ages 56, 48 and 35. Two of those who died were Austrian and one was German.
Two people were not hit by the avalanche, while three others who were swept by it managed to escape without injury.
The avalanche, at 2,500 metres altitude, was 500 metres wide and 500 metres long. The rescue team characterized it as “gigantic”, and it set off another avalanche on a facing slope that was 100 metres long and 100m wide.
Avalanche area, Ayers, Valais, Switzerland 1 April 2011
The avalanche occurred at 2,500 metres.
The group was traveling without a guide.
Photos: Valais Police
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Vaud police are seeking witnesses following a fatal accident shortly before 19:00 Thursday evening on the A1 autoroute near Lausanne. A 50-year-old man from Lausanne was critically injured when he lost control of his car for unknown reasons as he was driving in the direction of Crissier from Cossonay, at the Villars-Ste-Croix junction.
The autoroute on the Jura side was closed from 19:25 to 20:40 for the purposes of the police investigation.
The man’s car swerved into the emergency lane, then went off the road and into a guardrail just before a road sign for the junction, travelling some 40 metres along the rail before crashing head-on into the barrier at the junction.
The man was not wearing a seatbelt and he was thrown from the car upon impact.
He was taken to the Chuv university hospitals in Lausanne, where he died during the night.
Police ask that anyone with information that might help the investigation, particularly about the driver’s behaviour before and during the accident, contact them at +41 21 644 4444.
Kieran Brookes (photo: ©Irving of Exeter)
Chatel, France (GenevaLunch) – The chairlifts in Châtel, France, part of the Portes du Soleil ski resort area over the border from Switzerland, were stopped for a minute Wednesday 23 March to remember Kieran Brookes, age 14. He died 17 March following a chairlift accident a month earlier, during a school ski trip.
This is South Devon, a British newspaper, quotes Nicolas Rubin, the mayor of the French town, as saying “His death has been a huge shock to everyone here. It is something that people talk about not just here in Châtel but beyond. We have all been really affected by this. It is something we will not forget and we don’t want to forget. In memory of the tragedy we will hold a minute’s silence today at the time of the accident.
“Myself and others will go to the top of the chair lift where it happened. All chair lifts in the resort will be shut down for a minute in memory of this young lad.”
The youth was critically injured when his backpack became caught in the chairlift, he was unable to get out at the top, and as it left to head down he was trapped. His airway became blocked while a rescue crew tried to free him.
Those close to the police investigation into the accident have asked that anyone, especially English speakers, who witnessed the accident or the rescue contact French police to share their information.
Gendarmerie in Abondance, France:
Telephone / +33 4 50 73 01 02
Fax / +33 4 50 73 01 71
E-mail / bta.abondance [ à ] gendarmerie.interieur.gouv.fr
Background stories, GenevaLunch, 24 February and 20 March
Evolene ski slope where girl slid to her death
Sion, Valais (GenevaLunch) – A criminal investigation is pursuing two people following initial official inquiries into the death of a 12-year-old girl in Evolène, canton Valais, in February.
The girl died after sliding downhill and crashing into a pylon when she slipped from a towbar at the top of a ski slope.
Cantonal justice officials emphasize that the two are presumed to be innocent unless facts show otherwise, but they have began investigating the manager of the company that operates the resort’s ski lifts, Télé-Evolène SA, as well as the piste and safety manager.
Background stories, GenevaLunch 12 February and 10 February
Investigation: English-speaking witnesses could help
Kieran Brookes (photo: ©Irving of Exeter)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Kieran Brookes, age 14, died in a hospital in Devon, Exeter, in England Thursday 17 March, nearly a month after an accident on a chairlift at Châtel, France in the Portes du Soleil ski area.
He had been in a coma since the accident 23 February; doctors were unable to bring him out of the coma.
His parents, Cindy and Nick Brookes of Newton Abbot, had kept a bedside vigil until his death, when he was surrounded by his family and died peacefully.
The youth, who was halfway through a week-long school ski trip with Torquay Boys’ Grammar School in Britain, was caught in the chairlift after it arrived at the top, trapped by his backpack. The chairlift stopped at point where access was extremely difficult and during the time it took an emergency team to reach and free him, his airway was blocked.
Kieran Brookes, centre, front, on Torquay school trip (photo, )
The area was next to a ski slope and the rescue was watched by numerous horrified skiers.
He was initially treated in Annecy, France before being transferred to Exeter.
Students at Torquay school were informed Friday of his death.
The school’s headmaster, Roy Pike, told students “Kieran was a lovely boy, fully involved in the life of the school. He participated in all sorts of activities, he was full of energy and especially generous to his friends.”
Pike says the school learned after the accident that Kieran had scored in the top 5 percent in a UK national mathematics competition.
Several skiers next to rescue point witnessed the accident
GenevaLunch was contacted by several people who witnessed the accident, hoping for further information.
Those close to the police investigation suggested to GenevaLunch this weekend that if English-speaking witnesses have not yet contacted police to contribute to the investigation into the accident it would be helpful if they do so now. The French police investigation is expected to take several weeks.
Gendarmerie in Abondance, France:
Telephone / +33 4 50 73 01 02
Fax / +33 4 50 73 01 71
E-mail / bta.abondance [ à ] gendarmerie.interieur.gouv.fr
The school and other parents have set up a memorial fund for Kieran Brookes, working with Cindy and Nick Brookes.
Background, GenevaLunch
Links to other sites: Facebook condolences page for Kieran Brookes, Torquay Grammar School page on his death
Zermatt, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A 22-year-old man from canton Valais was killed Saturday night on the outskirts of Zermatt, following a ski accident. The youth left a “public establishment” on the slopes, a few hundred metres from the village, say cantonal police, carrying a young woman on his back as he skied down a floodlit piste. Shortly after joining the piste he crashed into a woman on a snowboard.
The young man went into the safety nets at the edge of the piste but was critically injured, and he died soon afterwards.
The two women were slightly injured.
Police have opened an investigation into the accident. This is the second accident in two days on slopes near Zermatt.
Geneva, Lausanne and Nyon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A French man in his 30s died Friday morning when he lost control of his car on a bend on the St Cergues road, Vaud police say. He was travelling from La Cure to St Cergue when he missed a left bend at Cheseaux, about 10:15. The car hit a rocky bank and rolled over, landing on its roof.
The driver was unconscious when emergency services arrived and he died shortly afterwards.
The victim was a resident of France.
The St Cergue road was closed from 10:30 to 14:00 for the police investigation.
Geneva youth’s scooter was hit by truck
A 20-year-old on a scooter died Thursday evening after he was hit by a truck near 7, Route des Jeunes in Geneva. He died at the scene of the accident. He was heading towards Jonction, after the Etoile junction, when the truck, which was using the delivery quai at number 7, hit the scooter.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Police in canton Vaud are seeking witnesses to a Wednesday evening accident in which a young woman suffered critical head injuries near the Bussigny autoroute exit that heads towards Echandens. Police are looking, in particular, for other pedestrians who were at the site Wednesday evening at 17:40 and who can provide information about the lights changing.
A woman was driving down the centre lane on the Route de Crissier shortly after the autoroute junction and just before the junction with the Route de Bruyère when she hit a pedestrian who was using the pedestrian crossing.
The young woman was thrown into the car’s windshield before hitting the ground head first. She was airlifted by the Rega to Lausanne’s Chuv university hospitals and Thursday morning her life was considered to be in danger.
Several emergency vehicles were called to the area. Traffic getting off the A1 at Crissier and Bussigny, as well as at the Villars-Ste-Croix autoroute junction was backed up for several kilometres shortly after the accident, which occurred at rush hour.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The death of a popular local Swiss politician in July 2010 shocked the Morges region when her step-son, a well-known geneticist, was taken in for questioning in relationship to her death, charges he vehemently denied.
Medical examiners in Paris, France, who were given access to all the evidence, have declared the woman’s death “accidental”, TSR television has learned.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The British 15-year-old boy injured Wednesday 23 February in a freak chairlift accident in Châtel, France is in hospital in Annecy, France, police confirmed to GenevaLunch, but French authorities have not issued information about the state of his health a day after the accident.
