Snowfall Traffic chaos and many accidents due to the heavy snowfall
The heavy snowfall late on Thursday and during the night into Friday led to traffic chaos and many accidents in many regions of Switzerland. The situation slowly returned to normal on Friday morning.
In German-speaking Switzerland in particular, the cantonal police reported a large number of accidents due to the difficult road conditions.
In the canton of Bern, for example, around 130 traffic accidents had occurred by early Friday morning. In a collision between a military vehicle and a touring car on the A1 highway near Kirchberg, nine occupants of the army vehicle were injured. In all other accidents in the canton of Bern, six people were injured.
Many vehicles on the road with summer tires
150 accidents were reported in the canton of Zurich, 120 in St. Gallen, 60 in Aargau and 40 each in the cantons of Thurgau and Solothurn. There were also accidents in Zug, Lucerne and Graubünden. These resulted in fender benders and a few minor injuries.
According to the cantonal police, the main cause of the accidents was insufficient distance between vehicles and inappropriate speed. The fact that many vehicles were driving on summer tires also contributed to the accidents.
Night shift for winter services
The winter services worked a night shift in many places in the lowlands. The transport companies in Basel, Zurich and Bern partially resumed operations.
SBB expected delays and train cancellations to continue on Friday morning. Several hundred SBB staff were doing their utmost to prevent the effects of the cold, SBB announced on Platform X early on Friday morning.
Reasons for the restrictions included disruptions to overhead lines and vehicles as well as icy points. The railroad company is working at full speed to rectify the disruptions as quickly as possible, said an SBB spokesperson.
According to the railroad company, prolonged snowfall, freezing rain and prolonged cold spells with sub-zero temperatures are particularly challenging for rolling stock.
No streetcar journeys in Bern and Basel
Due to precarious road conditions, streetcars and buses in Bern were initially still canceled on Friday morning. The buses then resumed their journey at around 9 am. Bernmobil expects to be able to resume streetcar services around midday.
In Basel, too, snow-covered parts of the overhead line meant that streetcar services remained suspended. The Basel transport company wanted to gradually resume bus services, but still expected them to operate irregularly. Zurich's public transport company did the same, but sent most of its streetcars and buses back on the road on Friday morning.
Zurich Airport was ready
Zurich Airport did not expect any major disruptions. The runways were ready for the start of operations at 06:00, an airport spokesperson told Keystone-SDA. The airport's winter services had worked through the night, clearing the runways and other areas.
Numerous flights from Zurich Airport still had to be canceled early Thursday evening, according to information on the airport website.
Relatively large amounts of snow
Due to the intensive snowfall and the cold weather, considerable amounts of snow accumulated. In the city of St. Gallen, for example, there was 25 centimetres of snow on Friday night. This was measured at 02:00 by the federal measuring station.
According to the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology (MeteoSwiss) on Platform X, the snow cover in the lowlands grew to over 20 centimetres in places during the night to Friday.
In contrast, there was slightly less snow in western Switzerland. At 2.50 am, MeteoSwiss meteorologists also measured 25 centimetres of snow in the Vaud town of La Dôle above Lake Geneva, but "only" 21 centimetres in Sion VS, 18 centimetres in La Chaux-de-Fonds NE and 8 centimetres in Fribourg.
Isolated snow showers forecast on Friday
According to the MeteoSwiss forecast, there are likely to be further isolated snow showers in the lowlands throughout Switzerland on Friday, but the heaviest snowfalls are over.
SDA
