Dutch ask Swiss for blood samples from bus crash driver
Relatives of the victims lay flowers at a monument
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Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has asked the Swiss government to provide blood samples from the driver who crashed a bus near the city of Sion in 2012, according to reports in Dutch and Belgian media. The crash killed 28 Dutch and Belgian citizens, most of them children.
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A Swiss-American journalist mainly covering education, migration and youth issues - plus the occasional story on cheese, given her roots in Switzerland and Wisconsin. She also produces podcasts and works on the social media team.
According to the De Morgen and Het Laatste Nieuws newspapers, Rutte made the request to Switzerland’s government after the parent of one of the children wrote a letter to Belgian and Dutch authorities asking for their help in procuring a blood sample. A group of parents had already appealed directly to the Swiss government, which denied their request.
Folco Galli, a spokesman for the Swiss Federal Office of Justice, told swissinfo.ch on Monday that his office “cannot confirm” having received the latest request from Rutte’s government.
A Swiss investigation confirmed in 2013 that the official cause of the bus crash was driver error. Investigators said the 34-year-old driver had an unusual heart condition that may have brought on sudden illness, but the theory ended up being impossible to prove conclusively.
He was also taking anti-depressant medication, which are thought to increase suicidal impulses. However, the cantonal public prosecutor ruled that out as a possible cause of the crash and ruled out bringing charges against the driver, who also died in the crash.
The coach was carrying 52 passengers from two Belgian schools returning from a ski holiday in March 2012 when it slammed into a tunnel wall on the A9 motorway between Sierre and Sion in canton Valais, western Switzerland. Twenty-two children and six adults died, and 22 more children were injured.
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Swiss president: Grief for bus crash victims hasn’t subsided
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“I share your grief and your emotion, just as all the Swiss people shared the pain you suffered three years ago,” President Simonetta Sommaruga told family and friends of the Belgian and Dutch victims at a memorial service Friday. “The empathy and solidarity of the people of Valais – and of Switzerland – were spontaneous…
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The Belgian press reported on Saturday that the parents of 14 of the 22 children – out of a total of 28 people who died in the crash in a motorway tunnel between Sierre and Sion on March 13, 2012 – had contacted Dutch forensic experts to go back over the causes of the accident. The…
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The coach was carrying 52 passengers from two Belgian schools when it slammed into a tunnel wall on the A9 motorway between Sierre and Sion in western Switzerland. Twenty-four more children were injured. Although the exact cause of the crash – one of the worst in Switzerland – remains unknown, investigators confirmed initial suspicions of…
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A statement released on Thursday by the public prosecutor of canton Valais said an autopsy had found that the driver suffered from a heart condition which could cause an irregular heart beat. It could also be aggravated by other risk factors presented by the driver such as smoking or excess fat in the blood. However, “there exists no…
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.