SWITZERLAND: Belgian Eric Van Maldaren and his wife arrived at the scene soon after a coach accident that killed 28 people, mostly children, in a Swiss tunnel
Record ID:
382777
SWITZERLAND: Belgian Eric Van Maldaren and his wife arrived at the scene soon after a coach accident that killed 28 people, mostly children, in a Swiss tunnel
- Title: SWITZERLAND: Belgian Eric Van Maldaren and his wife arrived at the scene soon after a coach accident that killed 28 people, mostly children, in a Swiss tunnel
- Date: 15th March 2012
- Summary: SION, SWITZERLAND (MARCH 14, 2012) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF SION FUNERAL CENTRE PEOPLE STANDING OUTSIDE BUILDING (SOUNDBITE) (French) WITNESS TO ACCIDENT, ERIC VAN MALDAREN, SAYING: "There was one girl that my wife helped out (of the bus) and I helped another girl, who was conscience but her leg was badly injured. After that the rescue team and fire-fighters came and we stayed for around one hour helping people, or at least trying to, by calming down the children and giving them blankets. The first children (who came out of the bus) were more or less fine, but the other ones were badly injured." (SOUNDBITE) (French) WITNESS TO ACCIDENT, ERIC VAN MALDAREN, SAYING: "Last night we were on our way back from visiting some friends in Val D'Anniviers, and we took the highway that leads to Sierre and we drove into the tunnel a few minutes after the accident, maybe three or four minutes, it is difficult to say because at that moment we got closer to the coach, the children who were already out of the coach gave us signs to stop, there was also a young woman and another child. A car that came right before us and my wife and me stopped and didn't quite understand the seriousness of the situation in the beginning, but when we moved closer to the coach we saw children (pause) well all the seats of the coach had been violently and abruptly pushed toward the front of the coach." JOURNALIST AND REPORTERS STANDING AROUND WITNESS VAN MALDAREN
- Embargoed: 30th March 2012 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Switzerland, Switzerland
- Country: Switzerland
- Topics: Accidents
- Reuters ID: LVA4CQMZ8N83GJD22RL9ONR8J8XF
- Story Text: Belgian, Eric Van Maldaren and his wife, were amongst the very first to arrive at the site of the coach accident that killed 28 people, 22 of them children, in a tunnel in Southern Switzerland.
Talking to reporters outside the funeral centre in the Swiss city of Sion, Van Maldaren explained how they arrived shortly after the accident.
"There was one girl that my wife helped out (of the bus) and I helped another girl, who was conscience but her leg was badly injured. After that the rescue team and firefighters came and we stayed for around one hour helping people, or atleast trying to, by calming down the children and giving them blankets. The first children (who came out of the bus) were more or less fine, but the other ones were badly injured," Van Maldaren recounted to reporters in Sion on Wednesday (March 14).
Carrying mostly schoolchildren, the bus had only been driving on the highway for about two kilometres, when on Tuesday evening (March 13) it hit the side of the road and drove into a concrete wall inside the tunnel of the city of Sierre.
"Last night we were on our way back from visiting some friends in Val D'Anniviers, and we took the highway that leads to Sierre and we drove into the tunnel a few minutes after the accident, maybe three or four minutes, it is difficult to say because at that moment we got closer to the coach, the children who were already out of the coach gave us signs to stop, there was also a young woman and another child. A car that came right before us and my wife and me stopped and didn't quite understand the seriousness of the situation in the beginning, but when we moved closer to the coach we saw children (pause) well all the seats of the coach had been violently and abruptly pushed toward the front of the coach," he added.
Investigators said the bus made an abrupt turn right before crashing into the wall with a speed of 100 kilometers per hour. The reasons of the accident are still unknown.
Most of the 24 survivors of the crash have been taken to hospitals around the cities of Sierre and Sion, while a few have been transferred to major hospitals in the cities of Lausanne and Berne, Valais police said.
Later on Wednesday (March 14) families of the victims will fly to Switzerland from Belgium. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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