Community remembers victims of Swiss bus crash on fifth anniversary
Five years after the fatal crash in a Swiss motorway tunnel, the people of Heverlee and Lommel have held services in memory of the 22 children and six adults who died
‘Intense pain’
The coach was bringing children from schools in Heverlee, part of Leuven, and Lommel in Limburg back from a skiing holiday in Sierre in the Valais region. The two drivers were also killed when the bus hit the inside wall of a motorway tunnel. The actual cause of the crash, which took place on 13 March 2012, has never been determined.
On Friday, children and parents from Sint-Lambertus school in Heverlee marked the anniversary of the crash, in which seven of their classmates and two teachers were killed. Later there was a mass in the local church.
“It was a very intimate and comforting service, in which the whole parish gathered to bear the intense pain and suffering of that event and support each other,” said deacon Dirk De Gendt, who officiated. Friends of the victims brought commemorative texts and a choir from the school sang.
Meanwhile, the Dutch government has begun legal procedures to continue an investigation into the causes of the accident. Six of the children who died were Dutch, and some of the victims’ parents are not satisfied with the verdict of the Swiss prosecutor, who concluded that the crash was an accident and that the cause could not be determined.
Some parents point out that one of the drivers was being treated for depression and could have crashed the bus deliberately. Last October, Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte requested blood samples from the driver from the Swiss authorities.
Belgian justice minister Koen Geens said that blood samples taken from the driver had already been destroyed by the Swiss legal authorities and, in a parliamentary answer, pointed out that supplying samples to a third party would be in breach of the Belgian law on DNA samples and its Swiss equivalent.
Photo courtesy Sint-Lambertusschool
