28 killed in Swiss tunnel crash

[spliff]

To get into that right hand lane the coach did need to mount a curb.

No it didn't, here's a link from streetview, not the same tunnel but it's sister tunnel in the opposite direction, I assume they are identical.
If you look at the link it's where the new righthand lane starts, there are no kerbs to mount, just white half chevrons painted on the surface. No rumble strips as far as I can see, but it's very gloomy down there. Keep clicking forward and you will see the wall looming. The only kerb to mount is a matter of feet from the point of impact.

The only reason I'm bothered about this is that I can see blame being shifted to the dead driver. Driver error was obviously a factor but poor design and signage also come into play. Those with PR folks (like Swiss equivalent of the highways agency) have jumped in talking about mounting kerbs, concerned no doubt about who sues whom.

 

[Zabo]

Looking at it carefully it seems there is a kerb but not very wide or high. Whichever, to have a solid concrete block facing oncoming traffic is inexcusable. A tyre blow out on a large vehicle could easily force it into and over the kerb.

 

[TitanSound]

No it didn't, here's a link from streetview, not the same tunnel but it's sister tunnel in the opposite direction, I assume they are identical.
If you look at the link it's where the new righthand lane starts, there are no kerbs to mount, just white half chevrons painted on the surface. No rumble strips as far as I can see, but it's very gloomy down there. Keep clicking forward and you will see the wall looming. The only kerb to mount is a matter of feet from the point of impact.

The only reason I'm bothered about this is that I can see blame being shifted to the dead driver. Driver error was obviously a factor but poor design and signage also come into play. Those with PR folks (like Swiss equivalent of the highways agency) have jumped in talking about mounting kerbs, concerned no doubt about who sues whom.

Look at my earlier post, it describes the coach having to go over a curb to get to the Emergency lane. The Emergency lane end with the wall. So, it looks like the coach swerved, over the curb, into the emergency lane and then into the wall.

 

[spliff]

Did you look at the streetview link?

There's is no kerb. The only kerb is a narrow walkway/pavement bit.

 

[Zabo]

"Investigations are ongoing, but police say the driver appears to have veered over the kerb and crashed with "extreme force" into the concrete wall marking the end of an emergency stop area inside the Sierre tunnel."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17368242

 

[TitanSound]

Did you look at the streetview link?

There's is no kerb. The only kerb is a narrow walkway/pavement bit.

I don't need to look at the Streetview link. Because it's not the actual tunnel, and it's been widely reported the bus mounted a curb before entering the Emergency lane. I don't see why you are refuting this?!

 

[SaskiaJayne]

Coach drivers working double manned can legally be on duty for 22hrs, driving in 4.5hr stints. In the recent fatal UK coach crash in northern France at 3am it is suggested the driver fell asleep at the wheel. It is normal for double manned coaches to be driven from southern to northern Europe overnight. On this one tho the coach had not long started it's journey & it happened in the evening.

Accident reconstruction

 

[tummytucka]

That tunnel has been there for donkeys years and this is the first accident of its type in it.

To get into that right hand lane the coach did need to mount a curb.

hey fuckface designer(to weltweit),,,the curb is so small it gives no saftey at all any vehical would mount that curb ,,this cleary is poor to the max tunnel design ,,there should have been a an asolute gradual slope not a fucking 90 degree angle ,please dont make dumb comments

 

[Teaboy]

Vehicles can leave the road for all manner of reasons, we will probably never know what happened because all the witnesses at the front have been killed. It could easily have been a massive heart attack as any other reason, in some ways thats not the issue here. What is the issue is that vehicle should have deflected off a crash barrier, it may still have rolled but we there would have been far fewer casualties.

I suspect that there was probably a combination of factors involved, it seems very unlucky that the coach left the road at that point, anywhere else in the tunnel it would have just deflected of the sides.

 

[weltweit]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17371237

Belgian motorist Eric Vanmalderen, on holiday in Switzerland, was driving behind the coach and described seeing it hit the wall of the tunnel. "I really can't understand it. I can only think of one explanation: [the driver] blacked out," he told the Sudinfo website in Belgium.