Swiss Coach Crash, Wednesday 14 March 2012

My highest thoughts fly to you, sweethearts!

"Belgium has been plunged into mourning and two small Flemish communities devastated after a school skiing trip ended in tragedy when 22 children were killed in a coach crash in an Alpine tunnel.
Parents had been expected at the school gates in the Belgian towns of Heverlee and Lommel to collect their 11- and 12-year-olds on return from their holiday. Instead, they waited in grief, confusion and disbelief to learn if their children had died or were injured.
Of the 52 people on the coach that left the resort of Val D'Anniviers, in the Swiss canton of Valais near the Italian border, on Tuesday night, 28 were killed, the vast majority children. Two drivers and four teachers completed the death toll. Of the injured, three children are in a coma, Laurette Onkelinx, the Belgian health minister said.
The tragedy was the worst road accident involving Belgians since 1972 and was believed to be the worst in Switzerland. Driving through a 2.5km (1.5 mile) tunnel near the town of Sierre, in south-west Switzerland, around 9pm, the coach hit the kerb, spun out of control and veered head-first into the concrete cladding of an emergency layby. Pictures of the accident showed a tangled crushed mass of metal.
One girl who survived and spoke to her parents, according to the Belgian newspaper Le Soir, said she was pinned between seats and emerged with two broken legs and a broken arm.
At the St Lambert school in Heverlee, just outside the university town of Leuven east of Brussels, parents and relatives congregated desperate to learn of the fate of the children. Slowly it became clear that 16 had survived.
"You see tears of happiness in the parents learning that their children are still alive," said Dirk De Gendt, a priest waiting at the school. In Lommel, north of Leuven, parents learned that at least 14 of the primary school pupils on the bus had perished.
The reasons for the crash were unclear. No other vehicle was involved. The coach was said to be ultra-modern with various safety devices. It passed the Belgian equivalent of its MOT last October.
Didier Reynders, the Belgian foreign minister, said there was no other vehicle in the tunnel.Parents of the bereaved and injured flew to Geneva en route to the scene of the disaster and to the mortuaries and hospitals. Teams of psychologists and police disaster victim identification experts also travelled from Belgium to Switzerland.
Elio Di Rupo, the Belgian prime minister, called for a day of national mourning. "It's a black day for our country. All Belgians share our immense sadness," he said. "There are no words to describe how we feel."
Herman Van Rompuy, president of the council of the EU and a former Belgian prime minister, said: "What should have been a nice reunion for all these families has turned into a true tragedy."
If the catastrophe left Belgium in a state of stunned disbelief, the teams of Swiss rescue workers dealing with the aftermath of the crash were also said to have been severely shocked by what they encountered.
"I've got a 12-year-old daughter myself," said Claude Peter, head of the regional rescue service and one of the first people on the scene of the accident. "I was deeply affected to see injured and dead children of the same age.
"The children were no longer crying," he told the Flemish paper, De Standaard. "There was complete silence. They were all in shock. Everything was in ruins. For the rescue workers, too. Many of them burst out crying." "

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/14/swiss-coach-crash-belgium-mourns-22-children