Heading towards Lausanne, three lanes on the A1 autoroute, January 2010
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss national highway department says that the first month of a Swiss experiment near Lausanne has been successful. Eight months of road works led to the opening in mid-January of emergency lanes to traffic at peak times on the A1 autoroute between Morges and Lausanne. The accident rate in 2009 on the stretch of road was on average one a week, further clogging the road, used by 90,000 drivers a day. There was only one accident during the first month of the new system, one-quarter of the previous rate.
Saint Prex, Vaud, Switzerland 13 January: snow near Lake Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Snow right down to the lakefront is relatively unusual on Lake Geneva, but with temperatures hovering around -1C until 08:00, and snow falling all night, lakefront villages had the kind of snow ski resorts envy. TSR reports that the airport snow was of “exceptional quality” but also unusually slippery, which accounted for Geneva airport closing until 11:00. Geneva police reported a “normal” number of accidents in the region, but one in Thonex was a little more unusual than most: a man taking his wife to the hospital to have a baby hit a tram when his car slipped in the snow during a turn. There were no injuries, reports 20 Minutes.
Foreigners’ injuries falling, as part of whole for Swiss winter sports, avalanches biggest killers
Click on images to view larger
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Foreign tourists are gradually becoming a smaller group among the total of those injured in winter sports in Switzerland, new statistics show.
BPA, the Swiss safety board, Monday 11 January issued its annual detailed statistics for non-work accidents: at home, doing sports, on the road.
Foreigners accounted for 40 percent of ski accident injuries, 18 percent of snowboard ones and 27 percent of injuries from other winter sports (average: 32 percent).
By comparison, the figures for 2003 were: 47, 29, 28 (average: 40 percent).
Foreigners accounted for 19 of the 39 deaths from winter sports in 2007, the most recent year noted, up from an average of 15 out of 40 deaths a year recorded for the five years from 2003 to 2007.
Knees for skiers, shoulders for snowboarders
Knees remain the most vulnerable body part for ski injuries, while shoulders and the upper arms are for snowboarders.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A man died when his car crashed into a tree in Geneva and another when his car rolled into a field in Valais, another man died while base-jumping in Lauterbrunnen, and a railway worker was run over by a train at the Zurich train station, in a 24-hour period Monday and Tuesday 22 December. The series of unrelated deadly accidents brought to 21 the number of people who have died on Geneva roads in 2009 and to seven the number of people who have killed themselves base-jumping in Lauterbrunnen in 2009.
The Geneva driver was a 57-year-old Russian man, resident in Geneva, driving a gray BMW. He was heading from the Place des Nations shortly after 04:00 on the Route de Ferney when he lost control of his vehicle.
African roads are the world's worst, for numbers of accidents (image: WHO, click on image to view larger)
Geneva / Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Roads kill 1.3 million people every year – some 3,000 people a day – and the United Nations estimates that the number will rise by 60 percent in the next few years. Half of those who die are pedetsrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. Switzerland’s transport minister, Moritz Leuenberger, told the first ministerial level world conference on road safety, which opened in Moscow Thursday 19 November, that deaths and injuries can be reduced if safety regulations are increased and enforced. He pointed out that Switzerland has reduced its road traffic deaths more than fourfold since 1971 despite a large increase in traffic during that time.
Leuenberger, who presided over one of three key discussions at the United Nations WHO conference, says that safety education campaigns are essential, but they can’t hope to compete with James Bond style advertising on the part of the automobile industry.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Police in canton Vaud late Saturday nabbed a biker whose souped-up Honda CBR600 was going 200 kph in an 80 zone on the cantonal road between Senarclens and Cossonay. His license was immediately confiscated and he is being charged with several offenses, including illegally modifying his bike and going 115 kph over the speed limit after the 5 kph margin of error was allowed.
Update 31 August 06:30 Martigny and Valais, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The week’s end death and serious injury toll from non-road accidents in the Lake Geneva area in Switzerland was high, with 2 young men in critical condition after a swimming pool accident in Martigny and a diving accident in Prangins, and three people dead from mountain climbing accidents.
An American student, 20, is in critical condition, reports the Tribune de Geneve, following a diving accident Sunday afternoon at the Plage de Promenthoux in Prangins. Diving is banned along the lakefront in the area because of the shallow water. He was flown by a Rega helicopter to the Lucerne paraplegic trauma centre after receiving emergency treatment at the site of the accident.
A 23-year-old and two friends climbed the municipal pool fence at 05:00 Saturday, according to 24 Heures, and once in the pool two of them noticed that their friend was missing.
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The number of road deaths in Switzerland in 2008 was 357, a 7 percent decrease in the number of fatalities over 2007. Serious road injuries fell 9 percent and slight injuries were down 5 percent over 2007, according to Swiss Statistics, out 20 August.
This is the lowest number of fatalities recorded since 1945, and yet the number of passenger vehicles in circulation on Swiss roads went from 63,000 in 1945 to almost 4 million today. Since 1971, the year most road deaths were recorded – 1,622 – these accidents have declined dramatically.
Russia’s record as Europe’s worst country for road accidents, with 10,000 deaths a year looks set to continue with 300 people dying in just three days at the end of July. The government blames bad roads, poor or little training and an attitude of many drivers who “think they can break the law and get away with it” the BBC reports Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliev saying. Moscow Times
Geneva and Ollon, Vaud, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Two dramatic accidents in the Lake Geneva region within two hours have killed a 10-year-old boy and critically injured several others. The first, in the center of Geneva on Boulvard Georges Favon in Plainpalais around noon Wednesday 22 July saw a motorcycle slam into a police car with its sirens going and lights flashing. The biker is in critical condition and the two police officers, whose car ended up against a lamppost, had to be cut out of their car. (photo, 20 Minutes)
In Ollon, a 10-year-old boy was killed when the car driven by his father was hit broadside by a heavy vehicle around 14:00. Police were nearby, answering another, minor accident call.
Update 14:00 Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The weekend list of accidents has lengthened, with the death in Lake Constance of a 22-year-old man added to those of four climbers in Valais, and Ticino police reporting that a gardener for a golf course was killed while mowing the course. Six people were injured just outside Geneva on the Route de Thonon when a car apparently attempted to pass two other cars near Anières, causing the cars to flip over onto a bank. (details, Tribune de Geneve )
Police are investigating the drowning in northern Switzerland, but first reports are that the young man went swimming after drinking with friends late at night and when he didn’t return they raised the alert.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Geneva area media are sending out the alert that too many drivers are well over the speed limit in the 30 kph zones in city centres and around schools, with two accidents in a week that have put three children from Geneva in hospital, with serious injuries. Tuesday 30 June a 7-year-old boy was the latest accident victim when he was hit by a truck next to a pedestrian crossing on the rue Dancet near Plainpalais.
The first accident occurred 25 June in the St Jean district, a story broken by GenevaLunch, whose reporter Jared Bloch was one of the parents at an end-of-year primary school party that ended in tragedy: a brother and sister left the fete and were hit by a car on the crosswalk in front of the school.
Related: 20 Minutes, Tribune de Geneve (Fre)
Lake Geneva region, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The long Pentecost/Whit weekend was marred by a number of deadly accidents in the area. In Neuchatel a 33-year-old Swiss woman drowned in Lake Neuchatel near Colombier 31 May, apparently after getting cramps while swimming. A 52-year-old man from Bex died when his glider crashed, for reasons that are not yet clear, near Gryon. He had left the airfield at Bex shortly before and was heading for the Vaud Alps.
Lake Geneva area, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – An 18-year-old died late Saturday night when the car in which he was a passenger went off the road between Assens and Echallens in Vaud and turned over several times, ejecting him. The cause of the accident appears to have been excessive speed. Three other young people in the car suffered slight injuries. In two other accidents, several people were injured. Saturday early afternoon a car driven by an 87-year old, going from Veytaux to Vevey in Vaud, left its lane and hit another car.
Grindelwald, Bern, Switzerland (TSR, Fre) – One of the bodies of two 21-year-olds who died 24 or 25 March on the Eiger has been recovered, but difficult meteorological conditions have hampered rescuers trying to reach the other body. The two, both very experienced climbers, appear to have been caught by bad weather. Police have now confirmed that the climber whose body was recovered died of hypothermia.
The young men were Swiss, but police will not release more information until they have been formally identified.
Earlier story, GenevaLunch
Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Two men died Saturday while base-jumping in separate accidents in Switzerland. In both cases their parachutes failed to open on time.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The number of deaths caused by road accidents fell by 7% in 2008 to 357, compared to 2007, and the number of serious injuries was down by 9%, to 4759.
The statistics were released 24 February by BPA, the Swis Bureau for the Prevention of Accidents which credits a variety of factors with the improvement: more low-speed (30 kph) zones, more fixed speed radars, driving courses and longer learner periods for young drivers, continued checks for drunk driving.
Etoy, Vaud: snowy fields, orchards and A1 autoroute
Lake Geneva region (GenevaLunch) – It was hard to avoid the weather 17 February in the region: either you were out in it or everyone mentioned it, or both.
The media covered it: Le Temps, Tribune de Geneve, TSR, 20 Heures.
Snow, accidents, and slippery roads until daytime Wednesday 18 February, when the sun is expected to shine, with temperatures just above 0C: that sums it up.
Which came first, the skid marks or the sign?
Ed. note, French lesson: if you’ve read the articles in our links you’ll have seen the term tôles froissées several times. It does not mean fried rooftops or cold tolls. Translation: Minor accidents or fender benders.
Fechy, Vaud: snow on the plains
Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Eastern and central Switzerland had overnight snowfalls of at least 10 cm down to the plain, causing accidents and slowing down traffic. In the Lake Geneva region, a truck spun out of control on the A1 autoroute near the Belmont accident, 20 Minutes reports.
