LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – A Swiss Intercity train traveling at 140kph from Yverdon-Les-Bains to Lausanne struck a car whose front wheels were hanging in the space over the railroad tracks in the village of Bavois. The driver, a 74-year-old local man, was killed when his car was thrown 30 metres by the train. The train was not derailed and there were no other injuries.
The accident occurred at 20:00 Monday night 10 October. The man had driven to the Bavois parking lot but, for reasons that are not clear, his car didn’t stop there and continued on towards the quai, with the front of the car slipping over the edge just as the Intercity came rushing through the station.
The train line, a major Swiss rail artery, was closed for part of the evening for the investigation.
Chateau de Chillon is one of Switzerland's most visited landmarks, but canton Vaud's other 11 major chateaus are also part of rich historical tapestry
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Canton Vaud’s 12 historic chateaus, open to the public, are joining together to offer a special deal at the end of September to encourage people to learn more about this aspect of local history. A single ticket will open the door to all 12 the weekend of 24-25 September, for CHF15 for adults and CHF10 for children or CHF35 for a family.
The 12 “monuments” are: Prangins, Ollon, Chillon, Oron, Coppet, Nyon, Morges, Moudon, La Sarraz, Yverdon, Grandson and Avenches. Some are privately owned, others publicly and while most are medieval, two are 18th century.
They are part of the canton’s landscape of about 200 chateaus, towers, fortified residences and lords’ seats.
They are regularly open to the public but the shared ticket has been offered only once before in the 17 years of the Vaud Chateaus Association.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – A man driving the wrong way on the A1 autoroute early Wednesday morning crashed head-on into an oncoming car, killing the driver of that car and seriously injuring himself.
The accident happened at 06:00 near the Chavorney exit on the A1 in the direction of Yverdon. The highway in that direction was closed for more than four hours while police investigated.
The man who died was a 55-year-old Frenchman living in eastern canton Vaud. He died at the scene of the accident after his car, which had been in the left lane, plowed into the central divider.
The 51-year-old driver who was on the wrong side of the autoroute was driving without a license; he lives in canton Fribourg and the Highway Service in that canton had earlier lifted his license, but police have not said why. His car ended up on its roof, in the righthand lane. He was taken by helicopter to the Chuv university hospitals in Lausanne. He remains in serious condition but his life is not in danger.
Several motorists had called the 117 emergency number to alert police to the driver; a police car was en route and was at the junction of Yverdon-sud and Essert-Pittet when the crash occurred.
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.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A 45-year-old woman from the Dominican Republic was found dead in a studio apartment on the rue des Uttins in Yverdon-les-Bains Sunday evening, and police are calling it homicide. An investigation was opened after police, called in by people close to the woman, found her body with fatal knife wounds and her hands bound.
The studio is in a building with several apartments that are used by legally registered prostitutes.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Vaud police are seeking witnesses to a serious accident that occurred at 08:20 Saturday morning 19 February on the road between Yverdon-les-Bains and Orbe, near the commune of Valeyres-sous-Rances.
A driver, under age 20, and a six-year-old were taken to hospital with serious injuries, with the child in critical condition with multiple fractures, after their car drifted across the road into the left lane, hitting two other cars.
The drivers of the two other cars were hospitalized, but their lives are not in danger, say police.
The driver of the first car, a VW Polo, clipped the left front corner of the oncoming car, whose driver lost control when a rear tire exploded. Her car flipped front over back and went into a field. The VW then hit the car behind hers, head on, a Renaut Kangoo that was sent into a steep bank on the opposite side of the road. The Renaut caught fire. A passing motorist and passenger managed to pull out the young driver of the first car and the child, who was taken by helicopter to the hospital.
The road was closed to traffic until 12:20. Anyone with information useful to the investigation is asked to contact cantonal police at +41 21 644 4444 or to go to the nearest police station.
Swiss solar project boat crosses Atlantic in 61 days using solar-only power
Webcam shot from the cockpit of Ms Turanor PlanetSolar, 5 December 2010, shortly before Mexico
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Ms Turanor PlanetSolar landed in Cancun, Mexico Tuesday 6 December, home this week to the first major world climate conference after Copenhagen in December 2009.
It was a day later than expected due to strong winds, but the boat and its team of six crossed the Atlantic using only solar power.
The Yverdon-based project has the support of the Swiss government, which is participating in Cancun.
Dead man had tatoo on upper left arm: click on image to view larger
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Vaud cantonal police in Lausanne are asking for help from the public to identify a man found murdered Wednesday 27 October near a depot in Montagny-près-Yverdon.
An investigation has been opened into the murder and the public is being asked to provide any details that might clarify the circumstances under which the man died.
He was found in an area called “La Brinaz” (View Map).
The man had a tatoo on his upper left arm. An autopsy was performed Thursday at the French-speaking Switzerland university legal medicine centre.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The A1 autoroute, already slowed considerably by major summer roadworks, was badly jammed Monday 19 July in the early afternoon by an accident involving a military convoy between Yverdon and Lausanne, in the direction of Lausanne.
A military truck with trailer veered to the right and off the road, flipping over and injuring three of the four soldiers, near the Bavois truck stop. A Neuchatel car hit the trailer, but its occupant was uninjured.
The stretch of road where the accident occurred is open but hilly. Police have not yet determined the cause of the accident.
4,500 fines, 137 licenses lifted during May on Lausanne-Yverdon stretch
Flat roads,open fields: drivers like to speed on the Yverdon-Lausanne A1 (photo, Liam Bates on flickr)
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The repairs on the Lausanne-Yverdon stretch of the A1 autoroute have prompted police to lower the speed limit to 80 kph to protect road workers, but motorists have not received the message, it appears. P0lice took away driver’s licenses from 137 people during May, for being well over the speed limit, and they fined another 4,500, out of the 73,000 clocked on the road. The worst offender was driving 148 kph.
Large panels reminding drivers to slow down are being posted, with the number of fines and license removals listed to drive home the message.
Ed. note: Vaud police are taking part in a 2010 national campaign to get drivers to slow down, called Slow Down, Take it Easy. Try their online interactive test to see how long it takes to come to a stop, starting from different speeds, with varying road conditions.
Safe from betting, at this stage
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Several Swiss football clubs Monday 23 November announced internal investigations into match-fixing involving their players following revelations in Germany 19 November that 32 games with suspicious outcomes were being investigated there. Seventeen people reportedly were arrested in Germany and, according to German media Bild, over €1 million seized in cash and property.
Swiss team FC Thun suspended its Senegalese star striker, Omar Fayé, after it was announced that the police had spoken to him “as a witness.” FC Gossau announced Tuesday 24 November it had suspended a player, as well. Two people were taken into custody last week in connection with the scandal.
Twenty-two Swiss Challenge League games and six Test matches involving Swiss teams, including FC Thun, Gossau, Yverdon and Sion, are under investigation. As an example, both Bern’s Young Boys and Aarau played Bulgaria’s first division team Lokomotiv Mezdra which lost 0:5 in both cases, 13 and 17 November, reports Swiss-German paper Tagesanzeiger 24 November.
Jacques Chessex (photo: ©2009 Ellen Wallace)
Yverdon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A man widely considered to be one of Switzerland’s greatest writers, the unassuming Jacques Chessex who was the first non-French winner of the prestigious Goncourt literary prize, died Friday night in Yverdon just after a public presentation in the town’s library, surrounded by the books that were his great love. He collapsed when his heart gave out and died shortly afterwards. Chessex, age 75, was the author of 31 books, most of them slim but incisive novels famous for their eloquent language. They often described the world around him, in French-speaking Switzerland, but captured the threads of human relations that run deeper than local stories: “Explorer of the human soul in all its complexity,” were the words Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz used to describe him.
Title: Hiking under the lights of the vineyard
Location: Corcelles-pres-Concise (foot of the Jura, near Yverdon)
Link out: Click here
Description: A guided tour of vineyards near Yverdon, accompanied by tales of legends of the region and wine tasting. CHF15
Date: 08 Oct 2009
Update 16 September Yverdon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The mother of a young child who fell out of a window and died while she was out partying has been given a six month suspended sentence for negligent homicide. The state prosecutor had asked for a 10-month prison sentence plus two years suspended sentence in the trial of a 24-year-old woman who left her three-year-old daughter alone while she went out for most of the night with friends. The child died in December 2006 after falling out of a six-storey kitchen window. She had managed to pull a chair up to the window, which had been left open, and climb out, then fell to her death.
Title: Hiking under the lights of the vineyard
Location: Corcelles-pres-Concise (foot of the Jura, near Yverdon)
Link out: Click here
Description: A guided tour of vineyards near Yverdon, accompanied by tales of legends of the region and wine tasting. CHF15
Date: 03 Sep 2009
Title: Discover the castles in Canton Vaud
Location: Canton Vaud
Link out: Click here
Description: A two-day extravaganza. Buy one ticket and visit one or the eleven castles open to the public in Canton Vaud: Prangins, Aigle, Chillon, Oron, Coppet, Nyon, Morges Moudon, La Sarraz, Yverdon and Grandson.
Start Date: 29 Aug 2009
End Date: 30 Aug 2009
Title: Historical hike (songs included)
Location: Yverdon, Vaud
Link out: Click here
Description: A historical hike of Yverdon, with a guide dressed in costume and… singing. (German singing available by request).
Sponsored by the Association of Swiss-Patrimony Guides and Interpreters (Asgip).
Date: 30 Aug 2009
Title: Hiking under the moon
Location: Corcelles-pres-Concise (foot of the Jura, near Yverdon)
Link out: Click here
Description: A guided tour of vineyards near Yverdon, accompanied by tales of legends of the region and wine tasting. CHF15
Date: 09 Jul 2009
Title: Historical hike (songs included)
Location: Yverdon, Vaud
Link out: Click here
Description: A historical hike of Yverdon, with a guide dressed in costume and… singing. (German singing available by request).
Sponsored by the Association of Swiss-Patrimony Guides and Interpreters (Asgip).
Date: 28 Jun 2009
Title: Historical hike (songs included)
Location: Yverdon, Vaud
Link out: Click here
Description: A historical hike of Yverdon, with a guide dressed in costume and… singing. (German singing available by request).
Sponsored by the Association of Swiss-Patrimony Guides and Interpreters (Asgip).
Date: 31 May 2009
Title: Historical hike (songs included)
Location: Yverdon, Vaud
Link out: Click here
Description: A historical hike of Yverdon, with a guide dressed in costume and… singing. (German singing available by request).
Sponsored by the Association of Swiss-Patrimony Guides and Interpreters (Asgip).
Date: 17 May 2009
Title: Nordic walk through Yverdon
Location: Yverdon-les-bains, Vaud
Link out: Click here
Description: A long, fun event where hundreds of spirited Nordic walkers meet. Registration open now.
Date: 17 May 2009
Title: Historical hike (songs included)
Location: Yverdon, Vaud
Link out: Click here
Description: A historical hike of Yverdon, with a guide dressed in costume and… singing. (German singing available by request).
Sponsored by the Association of Swiss-Patrimony Guides and Interpreters (Asgip).
Date: 25 Apr 2009
Title: Hiking under the lights of the vineyard
Location: Corcelles-pres-Concise (foot of the Jura, near Yverdon)
Link out: Click here
Description: A guided tour of vineyards near Yverdon, accompanied by tales of legends of the region and wine tasting. CHF15
Date: 12 Mar 2009
Title: Historical hike (songs included)
Location: Yverdon, Vaud
Link out: Click here
Description: A historical hike of Yverdon, with a guide dressed in costume and… singing. (German singing available by request).
Sponsored by the Association of Swiss-Patrimony Guides and Interpreters (Asgip).
Date: 22 Mar 2009
