In Basel on Sunday morning on the Margarethenstrasse there was a collision involving a tram. Several ambulances were called up.
According to reader reporters, a collision occurred on Sunday morning at the Margarethenstrasse/Dornacherstrasse intersection. It was so violent that a tram of line 2, coming from Binningen and heading towards the city, derailed. A bus of line 36 and a car were also involved in the collision.
According to one reader, several ambulances were called to the scene of the accident. "It was a violent accident. I hope no one is seriously injured," she says. It was not the first accident she had observed.
17 people in hospital
According to police spokesman Torpak Yerguz, 17 people were injured in the accident and had to be taken to hospital, including the tram driver. The persons were slightly to moderately injured. The crossroads were closed for a long time.
According to the news agency Keystone-SDA, the passenger car involved in the accident was hit by the bus after the collision of the public transport vehicles. Two people were sitting in the car, one of them also had to be taken to hospital.
Extensive salvage work
The reason for the accident is still being investigated. The salvage work lasted several hours into the afternoon. The derailed tram was first jacked up and then pulled back onto the rails step by step.
The scene of the accident could be opened to traffic again at 4 pm.
Surprising it doesn't happen more often...traffic in Basel is a nightmare these days and those trams and buses just plow through as if nothing has changed.
It's always amazing how people in the street don't realise that a 50 ton tram will not stop on a dime if a car or pedestrian suddenly steps onto the track. Yes, they have powerful brakes and they can dump sand down to aid the traction but they are still a hell of a weight to bring to a halt.
Added to that, they have to keep to a timetable and if they started slowing and stopping to allow said cars and pedestrians to nip across the tracks whenever they needed to, they could chuck the timetable out of the window.
With the increase in cars and population, I imagine there will be many more of these tram vs car/bus/pedestrian incidents.
Completely agree, there are way too many cars in Switzerland and especially in Basel due to over the border commuters. Which is why they built the tram lines out to France in hope that would help, but it hasn't.
The buses however could improve the way they drive, they drive as if they own the road and all passengers are safely buckled in their seats. I don't know how many times I've flown through the bus just because they want to take corners fast and slam on their breaks at the very last minute.
They also reduced the number of parking spaces in the city to encourage use of public transport and reduce pollution. Unfortunately, pollution increased as you have more drivers circulating trying to find somewhere to park.
Perhaps that's just Zürich? I ride the 34 in Basel fairly often. I'm generally impressed with the care with which they're driven.
Burn-out rates among bus and tram drivers are quite high. Not surprising.
But having only a single bus an hour (every two hours on Sunday) mesns people like me will continue to drive. Or I drive into Nyon, which defeats the purpose.
This. And they have quite tough physical/psych evaluations before they are allowed to start that job, I feel for them. They are one of the most professional folks I came across in our area, more polite than people in a service sector, tbh..
Bowlie, there could be more service in our villages but then the tix would double, me thinks.
No, I was living in Basel for 8 years until only recently. When I was living there, I tried to avoid the bus as much as possible for this reason alone...that and for the pollution they cause. But I am happy it has been positive for you.
I personally would be a stressed grump monster if I had to drive a bus through the city...so I don't blame them. It can just be stressful as a passenger - as you saw in today's news, bad things can happen.
There was another accident with a bus in Basel up at Wettstein this morning, a collision again and some of the bus windows were shattered with passengers taken to hospital.
I love the buses in Basel, especially the 36 when I catch it from Breite to Schifflande - it's like going on a mystery tour
Been living in Basel for 10 years and given the number of buses and trams that roam around here every day, I'd say accidents are the extremely rare exception. Yes it's unfortunate that there were two incidents right after each other, but it's hardly a daily occurrence, just like it isn't anywhere else really. No need to dramatize.
I hope everyone who was injured will get better soon.
I find now when I go back to Scotland I have a big problem with the traffic as there is so little here in comparison. I'm even a bit shocked by how much traffic goes past my local railway station back there, yet when I lived there never thought about it as I didn't consider it to be a particularly busy thoroughfare, despite it leading into the town centre.
I was in Edinburgh recently and the traffic was chock a block and pretty awful. Finding a parking space was a nightmare and Edinburgh is about to do away with parking in some city centre streets so they can be pedestrianised.
Don't even get me started on the stupid tram system they spent millions on, how is one tram in either direction a "system"?