Fatal accident temporarily closes Gotthard road tunnel
A frontal collision killed two people on Wednesday morning in the Gotthard road tunnel. Four other people were injured. The tunnel remained closed until around 3:30pm.
The accident occurred at 9:15am five kilometres from the northern entry at Göschenen in canton Uri, the police said. For reasons still unknown, a German motorist coming from the south drifted the wrong way, colliding into a Swiss-registered truck.
The tunnel infrastructure was also damaged, according to the Viasuisse Traffic Information Service. Traffic jams formed at both ends of the tunnel. Travellers were advised to take the A13 motorway via the San Bernardino.
This is not the first accident in the tunnel. In 2001, a collision between two trucks caused a fire that killed 11 people. At 16.9km, the Gotthard road tunnel is the longest in Switzerland and was inaugurated in September 1980. It runs from Göschenen in canton Uri in the north to Airolo in canton Ticino to the south.
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