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.
Be sure to check the weather on GenevaLunch before you leave home this weekend.
Jet d'eau in Geneva, viewed from Genthod, rain falling
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.”
Update 16:00 Genthod, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Russian media have been carrying stories about the accident Thursday 19 November in Genthod where a Lambhorgini driven by a 22-year-old Russian crashed into a Golf driven by a 70-year-old German, both resident in the Geneva area. The older man is in serious condition in the hospital. The Russian articles and a flood of comments and e-mail received by GenevaLunch are focusing on the likely names of those involved, with children of politicians and rich businessmen heading the top of the list of suspects. The names are openly published in Russia, with one notable family mentioned in the Guardian Tuesday afternoon.
In Switzerland, the Tribune de Geneve/24Heures published a story Tuesday afternoon saying three of those involved left Geneva Sunday on a private jet, thus avoiding having to give evidence to a Geneva judge. (Ed. note: the story cites “our sources” without details and appeared after Russian media reports).
Update 24 November 07:50 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Police continue to investigate the accident that put a 70-year-old man in hospital in serious condition Thursday 19 November after his Golf was hit by a Lamborghini Murcielago in Genthod, on the lake road. The driver was a 22-year-old Russian with an alcohol level of 1.11 per 1,000 (legal limit in Switzerland is 0.5), with a drivers license that is not valid in Switzerland. The car had Geneva plates. The Tribune de Geneve carries a front page story about the accident, suggesting that it was the result of a race or chase by four flash cars whose owners were trying to see which car is the fastest, a suggestion that other media have carried.
Geneva police spokesperson Patrick Pulh told GenevaLunch that police have not, in fact, been able to establish if there was any kind of race. “These cars make a lot of noise even when they are just idling.” he notes. “We haven’t been able to establish the speed at which they were going.” The ongoing investigation is seeking to clarify the roles of all the drivers involved, he says, and it’s difficult at this stage to say how long it will take.
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.
Villa Saugy (photo: canton Geneva)
Update 3 18:58
Genthod, Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The lovely setting of the blue-shuttered Villa Saugy in Genthod, a tiny lakeside village just minutes from the centre of Geneva, with Lake Geneva shimmering and the Alps white against a deep blue sky, provided an auspicious start for the talks between Iran and the 5+1 group Thursday 1 October.
Hopes that Americans and Iranians would talk to each other, for virtually the first time in three decades, were realized. Saeed Jalili, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, held bilateral talks with William Burns, the senior US official leading Washington’s delegation.
Iran says yes to nuclear inspections and parties agree to another meeting in October
Javier Solana, Europen Union foreign policy chief, said after the talks that Iran has agreed to allow the UN’s nuclear watchdog agency to visit its uranium enrichment plant, a source of tension since Western nations discovered its existence recently.
US says bilateral talks covered nuclear issues, human rights
Robert Woods, deputy spokesperson for the US State Department, issued this statement on the meeting: “On the margins of today’s P5+1 meeting with Iran in Geneva’s Villa Le Saugy, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Bill Burns met with Iranian Head of Delegation Said Jalili, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme Council on National Security.
Geneva, Switzerland (Romandie News, Fre) – Genthod-based luxury watchmaking group Franck Muller announced 4 June that it was laying off 200 employees of the approximately 400 remaining in the Lake Geneva region. This comes after a cut of 100 in April. Citing a very difficult situation in the global luxury business, company president Vartan Sirmakes said the company had to adapt its costs to market realities, Romandie News reports.
