Zurich coach accident claims second victim

The co-driver of a coach that crashed on a motorway near Zurich in mid-December has become the second person to die following the accident. 

A spokesperson for the low-cost coach firm Flixbus confirmed to Keystone SDA on Wednesday that the 61-year-old Italian co-driver had died in a Zurich hospital on Monday from his injuries resulting from the December 16 crash. The man had not been at the wheel of the bus operated by a Flixbus subsidiary when the deadly accident occurred at 4.15am. This information had been reported earlier in the Genoa daily Il Secolo XIX.

The 57-year-old driver of the coach crashed into a wall on the A3 motorway near Zurich on their way from the Italian city of Genoa to Düsseldorf in Germany. He suffered serious injuries. A 37-year-old Italian woman died instantly when she was thrown from the bus into the Sihl River. Forty-four other passengers out of 51 on board were injured.

The cause of the accident is not yet known but it is thought the vehicle skidded on the wet snow-covered road before hitting the wall.

Flixbus was founded in 2013 after the abolition of the German rail monopoly on long-distance transport between cities. The company offers low-cost bus routes across Europe. In total, more than 200 destinations in Europe can now be reached by long-distance bus from Switzerland.