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No new leads in Swiss bus crash investigation

09:55 30/04/2014

An investigation into a second mobile phone owned by Geert Michiels, one of the drivers of the bus that crashed in Sierre, Switzerland, in March 2012, has produced no new evidence, the Swiss prosecutor in charge of the case said.

The lawyer for a group of parents of the victims filed a successful motion with the court, forcing Olivier Elsig, prosecutor for Valais canton, to follow up with an investigation of the phone. Elsig had already closed his investigation, which found that the crash, in which 28 people were killed, including 22 children from two schools in Belgium, had been caused by human error.

The children were on their way home to Leuven and Lommel after the traditional sixth-year ski holiday. Both drivers and four members of schools’ staff were also killed, and the prime minister declared a day of national mourning.

The parents of some of the victims allege that Michiels, 35 and the younger of the two drivers of the hired coaches, may have crashed the bus deliberately. Michiels, who was behind the wheel when the accident happened, had been taking medication for depression.

Elsig said he had considered and rejected that hypothesis for lack of evidence. The mobile phone in Michiels’ possession at the time of the crash had been examined without result. The second phone was at his home at the time of the accident.

In a written statement, the driver’s widow said she had breathed “a deep sigh of relief” on hearing that the second phone offered no further evidence, referring to the “unjust allegations” made against her husband. “I hope that following this investigation, the case can finally be closed, and everyone can now get on with the process of grieving.”

 

photo: Schoolchildren in Leuven release hundreds of white balloons during a ceremony marking the one-year anniversary of the bus crash

©Yves Herman/Reuters/Corbis

Written by Alan Hope