12 dead after Swiss bus falls into ravine
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-04-18 09:08

A Swiss tourist bus plunged into an Alpine ravine on Sunday, killing 12 people and injuring 15, police said.

Fourteen of the survivors were thrown from the bus when it went out of control, police said. Rescuers descended by rope into the ravine and saved a 15th person from the wreckage, but the rest of the bus occupants were killed.

The bus slammed through a safety barrier and rolled several times down a steep slope before dropping into the ravine and coming to rest in a stream, La Drance d'Entremont, 800 feet below the road, said a police spokesman, Renato Kalbermatten. It was unclear why the bus went out of control.

A Swiss tour bus lies on the bank of the Dranse river after an accident on the road to the Great St. Bernard pass between Orsieres and Liddes, western Switzerland, Sunday, April 17, 2005. According to police information the bus with 27 travellers on board went off the road and fell over a slope about 800 feet (243 meters) into a ravine.[AP]

It was the worst bus accident in Switzerland since 1982, when 39 people were killed when a train hit a German tour bus.

It had been snowing around the Great St. Bernard pass — a main route through the western Alps near the borders of France and Italy — but the road was only wet when Sunday's accident occurred, police said.

The bus was based in the Swiss capital, Bern, and was taking passengers to Savona in northwest Italy, where they were to board a cruise ship, said the bus company manager. Heinrich Marti.

"We bought the bus new only last July," Marti said, telling Swiss television that the driver, who was injured, had called him to report the accident, but was in a state of shock and unable to give details.

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