Switzerland: Car crashes in Lake Lucerne – difficult salvage work

Lake Lucerne
Difficult recovery work: car falls 50 meters and sinks in the 180 meter deep lake

The car broke through a railing on the shore road and fell almost 50 meters deep into Lake Lucerne (Swiss canton of Uri)

© Schwyz Cantonal Police

A car left a shore road on Lake Lucerne and fell almost 50 meters deep. It then sank to the 180 meter deep bottom of the body of water. The salvage work was difficult. It is unclear how many people were in the car.

On Lake Lucerne in Switzerland, rescue workers have been trying to rescue a car that has fallen off a bank road from the water since Sunday – but there is little hope of survivors of the accident.

According to the police, the car collided with a rock face next to the road, spun over the oncoming lane and then broke through a railing. The vehicle then fell 45 meters and sunk in Lake Lucerne. This is about 180 meters deep at the point, which made the rescue work even more difficult. “Locating the vehicle and people at this depth also poses a particular challenge for the specialists of the Zurich cantonal police,” it said. The police assumed that the operation would last several days. With the help of a special camera ship, the car has now been discovered.

Swiss police do not provide any information about the occupants of the car

The “Neuer Zürcher Zeitung” (NZZ), citing the police, reported that the aim of the rescue workers was to pull the car to a height where police divers could examine it. It remains to be seen whether this will be possible this Wednesday.

Police did not say how many people were in the crashed vehicle. The car was registered in Zurich. According to consistent media reports, it is a dark SUV.

There is also no information on the cause of the accident. The Swiss National Council and traffic politician Bruno Storni (Social Democratic Party) told the newspaper “20 Minuten” that it was incomprehensible that there was no crash barrier at the accident site. “The railing is for pedestrians to keep them from falling. But it can never withstand a car.” His National Council colleague Pirmin Schwander (Swiss People’s Party) told the newspaper: “Politicians have been trivializing and delaying security on Axenstrasse for years.” Since the 1970s, the authorities had had the task of increasing the safety of the embankment.

The Federal Roads Office replied that the affected area of ​​Axenstrasse was not a major accident site and that all applicable norms and standards were being met. However, the authorities took an initial measure after the accident: the maximum speed allowed was reduced from 80 to 60 kilometers per hour until the end of the repair work.

In the accident on Sunday, a woman was also slightly injured because a car on the opposite lane was hit by a loose wheel of the accident vehicle.

Sources: Canton Police Schwyz (1), Canton Police Schwyz (2), “The New Zurich Times”, “20 minutes”

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