Lauterbrunnen Valley, Switzerland (Photograph by Keith Halstead)
Lauterbrunnen Valley, Switzerland (Photograph by Keith Halstead)
Pedestrians hit by vehicles, English base-jumper dies and mountain ski-lift jump kills photographer
Update Tuesday 25 January / Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A number of accidents have occurred in the region in the past five days, including several road accidents where pedestrians were hit by vehicles. A pedestrian was hit by a bus at Petit Lancy in Geneva Monday morning 24 January, but details are not yet available from the police.
In canton Valais a 76-year-old woman was killed last Thursday when she was crossing the main Visp-Brig road, using a walker and she was hit by a truck. Three days earlier a 20-year-old woman was taken to hospital after being hit by a car driven by a 54-year-old man while she was crossing a main street in Sion, the capital of canton Valais.
Friday, an elderly woman crossing a street in Yverdon-les-bains in canton Vaud was hit and thrown several metres by a driver who then fled the scene of the accident. The woman died later in hospital and the driver, a 40-year-old man from the region, turned himself in to the police 1.5 hours after the accident.
Champéry ski lift jump kills 73-year-old
Police in canton Valais are trying to determine what prompted two hikers who were photographing the region around Champéry to jump off a chair-lift. 24 Heures Tuesday publishes comments made by the brother of the elder of the two men, who died after the jump. He blames no one and says it was simply “a dumb thing” that happened.
Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen and Savoie in France: sites of four deaths
Lauterbrunnen Valley, Switzerland (Photograph by Keith Halstead)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Sports accidents in canton Bern have taken two lives while in neighbouring France a father and his baby died in a freak accident following a medical problem. Dauphine Libéré reports that in Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne, in Savoie, France, a 47-year-old man died of a heart attack while changing his baby, falling on the seven-month-old girl and apparently smothering her to death. The mother of the child, in the process of divorcing the father, according to the regional newspaper, asked neighbours to check on them when no one answered the phone.
Grindelwald tobaggan outing turns tragic
A 21-year-old woman, whose nationality has not been divulged by police, died Wednesday evening in hospital in Bern, where she was flown after a tobagganing accident in Grindelwald Tuesday 28 December at 13:15. She and a group of seven others were following a trail when half the group opted to take a pedestrian path. Shortly after, the young woman took an abrupt turn to the right, leaving the footpath, for reasons that aren’t clear, and she tumbled 20 metres, sustaining severe head injuries that led to her death the next evening.
Lauterbrunnen base jumper death comes one year after similar accident
Myles Robinson and his father Michael
Update 2 Bern / Wengen, canton Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A body found by a private group searching for 23-year-old British tourist Myles Robinson has been confirmed as that of the missing man, Bern cantonal police announced late Tuesday 29 December. He was found at the foot of the “Mönchsblick” viewing point, between Wengen and Lauterbrunnen. He appears to have fallen from a cliff near an area called “Steinhalten” which is not easily reached.
Police say that the autopsy did not provide any information about the possible involvement of a third party, but investigations are continuing under the direction of a judge, to determine what happened in the period before Robinson died. The judge decides what further action, if any, will be taken.
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Myles Robinson and his sister Cara
Update 2 21:37 Wengen, canton Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – “We think he must be here somewhere, maybe in a house,” Sarah Robinson, mother of missing British 23-year-old tourist Myles Robinson, told GenevaLunch Saturday evening 26 December. Her son disappeared in the early hours of Tuesday 22 December from the small Alpine resort of Wengen, not far from Interlaken, without a trace. The young man was at the Blue Monkey bar in the car-free resort above Lauterbrunnen, then walked an old family friend home and chatted with her for a while before heading back to his family’s place at 02:00, a 200-metre walk. It was a clear night.
Myles Robinson has not been seen or heard from since.
He was expecting his girlfriend to join the family for New Year’s and he had just been hired for a job he was looking forward to, with a financial firm in London.
Police and the family have appealed to villagers to look everywhere for the missing man. His mother says that she takes hope from a tall, dark-haired cousin of Myles being asked on the streets if his name is Myles. “People are looking out.”
A police spokesperson told GenevaLunch Saturday, “We have no clues. Nothing. We called for witnesses and several people phoned, but they were mostly sightings from other villages and turned out to be false alarms.” He noted that the police can’t even say they suspect foul play because there are no clues on which to make judgements. The police investigation continues, focusing now on interviewing people around him.
Sarah Robinson says police have done a thorough job of contacting people who know her son well.
A search of the mountainside is unrealistic, given the rugged terrain – the area is famous for its cliffs, forests and some of the toughest skiing in Switzerland, including the Lauberhorn race. The police spokesperson told GenevaLunch that the Swiss Army loaned a helicopter for a flyover search of the area around the town, which turned up nothing.
But Myles Robinson was not lost while skiing: he was walking a short distance home from a bar in the centre of town at an hour when pre-Christmas revellers were still out. There is no evidence that he ever left the village, intentionally, accidentally, or through foul play.
“He doesn’t take drugs, he doesn’t smoke – he’d had a few drinks and might have been a bit tipsy but [the friend he walked home] says they talked for a while and he was fine,” Sarah Robinson says.
She is quick to say that the police “have been very good” and the family is getting help from a Swiss judge, but launching a search, for example a house to house hunt, in the town when there are no clues poses legal problems. Villagers are being asked to check every possible place, such as cellars and buildings they don’t use often.
“We know that his cell phone was still active at least at lunchtime Tuesday,” says his mother. But initial reports that it emitted a signal from the south end of Wengen have been put in perspective, given the realities of cell phones in the mountains. “We are unsure about the transmitters for Wengen and we’ve been told that, with the mountains, signals could bounce off of Murren or some other area.” Murren, Wengen and Grindelwald are three villages in the area that have long been favourites of the British, who helped develop the modern sport of downhill skiing in this area.
The Robinson family (father, mother, Myles and his sister Cara) whom the mother describes as “close”, has been coming to the resort for 15 years and Myles knows the area well. He is fit and an avid skier.
“He can’t just have disappeared without a trace!” Sarah Robinson insists. Several kinds of sniffer dogs have been used and they have not picked up any trail. Asked if they suspect he might have been pulled into a vehicle, which could explain the disappearance of his scent, she says, “It’s a car-free resort – I can’t imagine what kind of vehicle it would have been.” There are few roads down from the resort, and a vehicle leaving would most likely have been remarked by someone.
“We’re being as pro-active as we can. We’re talking to everyone we can. We want to keep this in front of the public. We’ve got to try to achieve something.”
The family is not discussing the case of Daniel Baptista, she says, “but we’re all aware of it.” Battista disappeared in 2006 from Wengen after taking mescaline, and there has been no sign of him since.
“At the end of the day, we just want to make sure we get him back. Alive, we hope.
“I’m living on hope at the moment.”
Ed. note: the disappearance of Myles has been followed closely by the UK media. Links: BBC, Daily Mirror, Daily Telegraph, Times, UK
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A 36-year-old parachuter wearing a wingsuit, identified only as an American man, died near Lauterbrunnen in the Bernese Oberland.
Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Two men died Saturday while base-jumping in separate accidents in Switzerland. In both cases their parachutes failed to open on time.
