Mystery over tunnel coach crash which cost lives of 22 children

Devastated parents of pupils, mostly aged about 12, involved in the accident were yesterday flown to Switzerland by the Belgian government.

Many did not know whether their children were among the crash survivors or the dead.

Police said the coach driver was not speeding and every- one was wearing seat belts. No other vehicle was involved in the accident which happened shortly after 9pm local time on Tuesday, close to the southern Swiss town of Sierre, near Sion.

Swiss prosecutor Olivier Elsig said investigators were looking at three possible causes for the crash – a technical problem with the bus, a health problem with the driver, or human error. Video cameras in the tunnel captured the accident.

The coach, which was carrying 52 people, including the pupils from two different Belgian schools in Lommel and Heverlee in the Dutch-speaking Flanders region, struck a kerb inside the Tunnel de Geronde, then slammed into the concrete wall of an emergency siding.

The front section of the bus was torn apart by the impact, leaving passengers trapped. Another 24 pupils were taken to hospital having been cut free from the wreckage. A teacher and assistant were killed along with the two drivers and two other adults.

The road was closed in both directions to aid the rescue. Eight helicopters and a dozen ambulances took victims to hospitals. Dozens of firefighters and police, 15 doctors and three psychologists were called to the scene.

A minute’s silence was held by MPs in the Swiss Parliament and Swiss President Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf flew to Sion to pay her respects to the victims, survivors and rescue officials.