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The Sierre coach crash occurred on 13 March 2012 near Sierre, Switzerland, when a coach carrying school teachers and pupils crashed into a wall in the Sierre Tunnel. Of the 52 people on board, 28 were killed in the crash, including both drivers, all four teachers, and 22 of the 46 children. The other 24 pupils, all aged between 10 and 12, were injured, including three who were hospitalised with severe brain and chest injuries. The coach was one of three operated by the Aarschot-based Top Tours company and was transporting mostly Belgian school teachers and students from a skiing holiday in Val d'Anniviers back to their two schools in Belgium. It crashed at around 9.15 pm CET while travelling on the A9 motorway near Sierre, in the southern canton of Valais. It was Switzerland's second-worst road accident in history and the country's worst in a motorway tunnel. The cause of the crash is under investigation. Initial reports suggest the driver was not driving under the influence and was not breaking the speed limit. ==Circumstances== The passengers, four teachers and 46 pupils from Saint-Lambertus school in Heverlee, Flemish Brabant, and Stekske primary school in Lommel, Limburg, were returning home having spent the previous few days at a skiing resort in Val d'Anniviers in the Swiss Alps. The crash occurred shortly after 9 pm local time (CET) on 13 March 2012, when the coach, while in the Sierre Tunnel, veered and hit a curb, then collided with a concrete wall head-on, at the end of an emergency turnout area. The front portion of the vehicle was severely damaged, initially preventing some survivors from escaping; the side and rear windows of the coach had to be smashed by emergency workers in order to gain access to the trapped passengers.〔 Police said that because of the strong impact the coach was badly damaged and many of the passengers were trapped in the wreckage, meaning they had to be freed by the dozens of rescuers mobilised to the scene. The road was closed in both directions to facilitate the rescue which took several hours and involved firefighters, police, doctors and three psychologists. Rescuers described the scene as "apocalyptic" and some became distressed as they fought to remove dead and injured children from the wreckage. Eight air ambulances and a dozen road ambulances were used to transport victims to several hospitals. The most seriously injured children were flown to hospitals in Bern and Lausanne. The coach was one of three hired by the Christian Mutuality; the other two reached Belgium safely. Among the passengers aboard the crashed bus were 39 Belgians, ten Dutch children, one German child, one British child, and one Polish child. == Passengers == Most of the passengers aboard the coach were Belgian nationals. Six of the 10 Dutch passengers were killed, as well as one schoolboy with dual Belgian-British nationality.〔("23 Belgen en 5 Nederlanders omgekomen" ) www.standaard.be – 17 maart 2012〕〔 (Busongeluk: Nieuwe informatie Zwitserse autoriteiten )〕〔("Brits jongetje bij slachtoffers busdrama" ) www.nieuwsblad.be – 17 maart 2012〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Sierre coach crash」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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