Scene of drowning Monday in canton Valais
SION, SWITZERLAND – A 42-year-old Dutch man who lives in Valais died Monday morning 14 May when he fell into the fast-moving Rhone river in the Goms Valley, near Reckingham.
Police say that while doing maintenance work at the Augenstern campground he began emptying a wheelbarrow into the river at 11:30. For reasons that are not clear, he fell into the water.
His body was found 800 metres downstream by workers at the Gommerkraftswerke electric power station.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – An 18-year-old drowned,and two friends who were with him on a small craft in Lake Geneva early Friday morning were hospitalized at the Chuv university hospitals. The three were spotted by a passerby at 06:15 who phoned the 117 emergency number after noticing that they were in trouble in the lake near the Bellerive swimming pool.
Police arrived quickly and took charge of the two who had managed to swim to shore but were suffering from hypothermia. They told police their friend was missing and a search, with the police lake brigade and police units from Lausanne and Morges, as well as a Rega helicopter, got underway.
His body was found soon after, in 2.8 metres of water just 30-40 metres from shore.
The three youths had stolen a small plastic rowboat and were headed towards Morges, on a calm lake, but with the water only 7C. For reasons police say are not yet clear, the boat overturned.
The three were from Neuchatel.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A man who spent the evening with a woman who drowned just one metre from the shore in front of the Hotel President Wilson in Geneva in July 2010 has been cleared by a judge of any involvement in the woman’s death, reports the Tribune de Geneve Wednesday 3 August.
The two had met 18 hours earlier, been lovers for the day, and the man was unable to convince the woman not to go in the lake after she had consumed large amounts of alcohol. The woman had recently left a clinic where she was treated for drug and alcohol dependency and the judge accepted the defendant’s argument that he could not have known the extent of the risk she was taking. He was unable to save her himself and phoned French emergency services; he lives in France.
A rescue team arrived but too late: the woman drowned in less than two metres of water.
Bern's fireworks for the Swiss national holiday were cancelled due to rain but on the other side of the Alps, towns were able to have displays
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) - The First of August national holiday in Switzerland was not a quiet one for emergency services. The east of the country was swept by high winds and rain late in the day and during the night from Sunday to Monday, causing flooding in Schwytz and St Gallen. A man drowned in Lake Constance, in the Valais resort of Crans-Montana a car veered out of control in the village centre and injured seven.
The accident in Crans-Montana occurred shortly after noon Sunday 1 August when a 74-year-old man lost control of his car for reasons that are not yet clear, drove onto a sidewalk where he hit five people, then hit the window of a bakery, damaging several vehicles in the process.
Storms opened up around 20:00 Sunday evening in central and eastern Switzerland, causing streams to overflow, blocking roads in some areas, but also putting a damper on holiday fireworks planned in canton Bern and notably at the Bruenig Pass. The city of Bern received a heavy dose: 2 cm of rain in less than an hour. Winds in Neuchatel and La Broye reached 90 kph, according to the national weather service and hail fell in some areas of the country.
A 49-year-old man fell into Lake Constance from his boat late Sunday when a storm suddenly whipped up on the lake and part of their equipment went into the water. The man fell overboard while trying to get it back. The friend who was with him tried to pull him back into the boat, unsuccessfully. She called police immediately and a 50-person, 15-boat international rescue team spent four hours looking for him, to no avail. The search continues Monday morning.
Links to other sites: TSR (Fre), 20 Minutes (Fre)
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – A second young man has drowned this week, a 20-year-old, Thursday afternoon 9 July, at the Hauterive port in Neuchatel. He was with a friend, who immediately raised the alert but by the time emergency services arrived it was too late to save the youth, who was from Gampelen in canton Bern.
His is the second accidental death by drowning this week. Monday, Daniel Cho, a cellist with the Regina Spektor band, in town to perform at the Montreux Jazz Festival, died after taking a swim with a friend near the Chateau de Chillon.
The Swiss Safety Council warned at the start of summer that young men are statistically more at risk of drowning than the rest of the population. Forty-six people die from drowning, on average, every year in Switzerland.
Tourists at Montreux this week: Lake Geneva is a popular attraction, in addition to the jazz festival
Montreux, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) - An American in his thirties drowned while swimming in Lake Geneva, near the Chillon beach in Montreux Tuesday afternoon 6 July, Vaud police say.
He and a fellow American were swimming together near the Chateau de Chillon, but the friend lost sight of him around 14:00 and an alarm was quickly raised. A 14-man rescue operation recovered his body, 15 metres from the beach, in three metres of water.
An investigation into the death is underway.
The area around Montreux is filled with tourists this week, with the Montreux Jazz Festival running until 17 July.
UPDATE: Regina Spektor announces the death of Daniel Cho during her performance in Switzerland.
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.
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.
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.
A jury in Alabama in the US convicted Lam Luong, 37, on four counts of murder Thursday 19 March. Luong pleaded guilty to throwing his four children off of a Gulf Coast bridge after a marital dispute that occurred a week before the murders in January 2008. Luong’s sentencing, a complex process, begins Friday 20 March. Jurors will have to recommend the death penalty or life in prison without parole. The judge is not bound to the decision of the jury, however, and automatic appeals are mandatory in murder convictions. CNN
