Lorry driver recovered dead from Swiss river

Lorry driver recovered dead from the Aare near Olten Keystone-SDA

A lorry plunged off a bridge into the River Aare between Olten and Winznau in an accident on Friday afternoon.

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The driver could only be pulled out of the water dead, a spokesperson for the cantonal police said on Saturday.

“Shortly after 3pm, the lorry was recovered with pneumatic cranes,” said a spokesperson for the Solothurn cantonal police on Saturday at the request of the Swiss News Agency Keystone-SDA. It was later announced that the driver had died in the accident.

The police spokesman went on to say that the recovery work had been complex. The bridge railing had to be repaired after the accident. The bridge was finally reopened to through traffic at around six o’clock on Saturday.

The lorry was travelling from Olten in the direction of Winznau when, for unknown reasons, it broke through the railing of the Gösgenstrasse bridge and plunged into the Aare, according to the police. The vehicle sank completely into the water. The lorry was not carrying any dangerous goods.

The exact course of the accident and the cause are the subject of ongoing investigations.

Adapted from German by AI/ts

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