Tunnel safety to be assessed after fatal crash

New safety measures for Swiss road tunnels will be considered following the canton Valais bus crash that left 28 people dead earlier this week.

The Federal Roads Authority will examine several measures, including raised road surface markings at the edges of lanes to warn motorists if they are getting too close to the walls, according to a report in the SonntagsZeitung newspaper.

Wednesday’s crash in a tunnel near to Sierre killed 22 children from a Belgian school and six adults who were returning home from a ski trip. It was one of the worst ever road traffic accidents in Switzerland.

The bus lost control after clipping the tunnel wall before smashing head-on into a concrete wall at the end of an emergency lay-by.

The tunnel, which was built in 1999, was given a clean bill of health in 2008 following a federal study of all 220 Swiss road tunnels.

“We owe it to the victims to show that we are willing to learn the lessons from this tragedy,” Roads Authority vice-director Jürg Röthlisberger told the SonntagsZeitung.

“We are of the opinion that in the 90 Swiss tunnels with opposing traffic lanes, the risk of a head-on collision is too high if vehicles swerve.”

But Röthlisberger also cautioned that the authorities would not rush into new safety measures that could create new unintended hazards if not thought through clearly enough.

Over the weekend, more of the 24 injured children were taken to Belgium after recovering sufficiently from their injuries to travel from Switzerland.