SWITZERLAND: Investigations continue into causes of bus crash that killed 28 people as Switzerland awakes in shock

Record ID: 382816

  • Title: SWITZERLAND: Investigations continue into causes of bus crash that killed 28 people as Switzerland awakes in shock
  • Date: 16th March 2012
  • Summary: VISP, SWITZERLAND (MARCH 15, 2012) (REUTERS) EXTERIORS HOSPITAL IN VISP, WHERE SIX CHILDREN WERE TAKEN AND ARE READY FOR DISCHARGE
  • Embargoed: 31st March 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Switzerland, Switzerland
  • Country: Switzerland
  • Topics: Accidents
  • Reuters ID: LVA838MI731AI6W9SRQK4N4LRPWT
  • Story Text: Residents of Sion in Switzerland have struggled to express their emotions in the aftermath of Tuesday's (March 13) coach crash in the area, as six of the survivors prepare to be discharged from the hospital in Visp.
    The coach carrying 52 people, hit the side of a tunnel on the way back from a school ski trip and slammed into a wall, crushing the front third of the vehicle.
    Six of the 28 dead were adults and the rest children, most of them 11 or 12 years old.
    Shocked members of the public have been laying flowers by the roadside near to the scene of the crash.
    The dead have been taken to the Terior morgue where families have come to identify their bodies.
    Many residents of Sion, only a few kilometres from the scene of the crash, expressed shock when they woke on Wednesday morning to news of the tragedy.
    "I was pretty shocked because I had just taken the motorway that morning with my mother. So I hadn't yet heard about it. So it shocked me. I was very sad that it was children -- 22 of them," said one resident.
    Parents have found themselves particularly touched given the age of 22 of the 28 victims.
    "I have children. And to think that the children had been sent on holiday. And then they don't come back," said one.
    The crisis has touched the whole community: "We're all affected here," the resident added.
    Six of the survivors of the crash are preparing to be discharged from the hospital in nearby Visp where they have been being treated.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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