Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - St. Gotthard Tunnel

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St. Gotthard Tunnel - Fire

St. Gottard Tunnel closed due to fire. Casualties mounting.

This is a sad and tragic event...I am driving from middle germany to Amalfi,Italy and was planning on driving thru this tunnel. I know find myself on an exhaustive timeline, I must be at my villa between 4-6 saturday to get the keys. I am thinking of driving to Innsbruck and then down thru the brenner pass into Italy. This is turning into the trip from hell. I originally bought tickets on Sabena air which is not flying (thank god for visa, they refunded my money, I then tried to reschedule the condo, THe Parker co. Seaport Ma, told me go ahead but there would be no refunds). I also have a terrible flu bug and am taking heavy antibiotics that will cause me to projectile vomit if I drink alcohol. I am wondering what next can possibly go wrong??????????

mh, Your choice of Brenner autobahn is a good one as an alternative to St Gotthard tunnel, as it's probably the fastest way from Germany to Italy. Just beware that you have to buy a vignette (sticker) to drive on Austrian autobahn and pay further toll for Brenner autobahn. I hear that the fire at St Gotthard is turning out to be far worse than first thought, with up to 100 people still missing. I fear it will be a long time before this tunnel is re-opened. There is a strong public opinion that the current single-lane tunnel should not be reopened until another tunnel is created to separate the traffic. Mont Blanc tunnel has been closed for 2.5 years since the disastrous fire that killed 39 people, and is only set to re-open next month. It has two separate tunnels.

Thanks for posting this information. After first reading it I began wondering if it might not be a hoax since try as I might I could get no information on it from any of the news tv channels. Finally checked Reuters.com where I was able to see the report. This is truly a disaster for easy European travel. Also a sad commentary on the insular nature of US news reporting.

An alternative to the Brenner is the San Bernardino.

The most recent news release I saw said 80 people were missing and 10 fatalities have been confirmed, but the death toll is fully expected to increase as the wreckage is cleared. Smoke is still billowing from the ventilation shafts. Parts of the tunnel ceiling fell in burying several vehicles. Conditions inside the tunnel are still very dangerous which makes rescue work even more difficult. To make matters worse, there has been a second fatal crash in the St. Bernhard Tunnel involving a truck, a mini van, and a car. (The St. Bernhard Tunnel is one of the key alternative routes to Italy from Switzerland.) The St. Bernhard tunnel is again open but the backlog of trucks wanting to get through the tunnel is huge.

Bob, I just read that on the front page of the NY Times online. They said despite the fact that many lives were probably saved by footpaths, lighting, etc., temperatures in the tunnel reached 1800 degrees Fahrenheit, probably causing part of the tunnel to collapse & hindering recovery efforts. Police closed the San Bernadino tunnel off at Chiasso, due to the accident with the minivan & the back-up of trucks. Ursula, I am so very sorry. Such a lovely place, filled with such sorrow. @--->--->---- BC

BC, thanks. I will watch the news tonight so hear the latest outcomes. It's a tragedy, yes. I really hope the estimated 80 missing people will not all be among the victims. When will this period full of tragedies end?

Just read about this on CNN.com. My first thought was: maybe not accident, but terrorism on European soil? Another of those suicide missions? And yes, if this gets any mention on USA evening news it will most likely be brief and not expore all the questions this tragic event raises.

Given the fact that the US is at war and bioterrorism is rampant in parts of the country, this event has found front coverage on most major newspapers in the US as well as front coverage on CNN.com.

Swiss police now believe it's 'unlikely' that there are other casualties beyond the 11 confirmed, as the remaining vehicles inspected today were found to be empty. Bad enough, but it could have been worse. It looks like it could take them many months to reopen this one too.

CNN had a photo of the firefighters working on this fire on one of their web pages. They said it became so hot, some of the cars & trucks fused together.

France proposes one-way tunnels: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/wor...00/1622139.stm I read a couple of articles yesterday about this, with many people criticizing the lack of a barrier separating the two lanes of traffic. While even a barrier or one-way tunnels won't completely eliminate the risk of something like this happening -- since a car or truck could always be rear-ended -- it does seem the the current set-up, with one lane in each direction and no barriers, is a poor one. One wonders why, if they have the engineering expertise to tunnel through mountains, they couldn't have designed the tunnels with barriers between the lanes. At least the Gottard had a service tunnel and other safety features which undoubtedly saved many lives.

For some reason the Fodors hatchet man chose to delete some of the posts on this thread. Some of them gave the latest information some of which is not available from English sources. I will post again, but bear in mind, my words are exposed to the ax. The most recent release I saw from a German language source said that the number of confirmed deaths had not exceeded 11, but that there is an indication that if the most recently found "evidence" is not that of the driver of one of the trucks, then the count would rise to 12. There are still people reported as missing, but the number shrinks as followups are made and people let the police know that they are safe. There are still some biohazards feared. The driver of one of the trucks involved in the collision was operating without the proper licenses and permits, according to the German source I read. The tunnel will remain closed for an indefinite period of time. Those of you who had planned on driving through the tunnel between Italy and the rest of Europe within the next few months will need to find another way to make your trip. I trust that this version is sanitary enough to escape the local hatchet. I would also appreciate an explanation why some of the posts were deleted. As near as I could tell they conveyed information about the accident and the recovery operations. The postings did not engage in name calling nor did they contain deragatory or inflammatory remarks. They did no more than discuss a tragic situation the impact of which on European travel will be felt for a long time. If discussing travel topics has become taboo on this forum, then I wonder what we can discuss. Given some of the ugly, even vulgar, remarks that stay on the forum, I don't understand why factual, news sharing posts are deleted.

A few posts from today onto this thread were deleted, which I find puzzling & disturbing. I asked if 80 people were still missing; Ursula updated us that 16 were now listed as missing. Capo had something to say about the illegality of the truck travelling without proper papers. What the heck is going on??!!! BC

I don't think anything was deleted. There are two threads going on this subject, and they got confused.

Many thanks again, jahoulih! BC

My apologies. There are two threads that are with similar titles. I cannot find anything today on the death toll or the reconstruction efforts. There is another story, however, about problems on the San Bernardino Pass. I am not sure what took place other than a monster traffic jam because of all the traffic. It looks like automobile travel is affected, unless drivers can use some of the more steep passes that trucks cannot negotiate.