On Sunday afternoon, a vehicle had an accident on Axenstrasse near Brunnen and crashed into Lake Lucerne. The salvage of the vehicle was difficult, but was completed on Wednesday afternoon.
The car involved in the accident was recovered on Wednesday afternoon. The person at the wheel died in the accident.
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The complex action in the water lasted three days. On Wednesday, the emergency services recovered the car that had left Axenstrasse on Sunday: They pulled a dark passenger car into Brunnen from Lake Lucerne with crane ships and steel cables. They had previously found a dead person inside.
The specialized units of the Schwyz maritime police and the Zurich cantonal police had already located the vehicle at a depth of 182 meters on Tuesday, but had not yet been able to recover it. The action was meticulously planned and implemented with caution, says Florian Grossmann, spokesman for the Schwyz canton police, on request. Weather conditions, waves and the safety of the emergency services had to be taken into account in order to transport the vehicle out of the great depths of the lake.
No further victims suspected
In a first step, the crane ships only pulled the completely destroyed car close to the surface without lifting it out of the water. Afterwards, police divers were deployed, who climbed to a maximum depth of 40 meters. They examined the car while it was still under water and found one fatality. After recovering the body, they brought the vehicle to a place on land that was as hidden from view as possible. At that time it was still unclear whether there were other victims in the wreck.
An underwater search device was lowered from a Kapo Zurich police boat to locate the missing car.
The police now assume that the person involved in the accident must have been alone in the car at the time of the accident. Parts of the vehicle had already been found on the lake shore on Monday, including a Zurich number plate. Thanks to this, the investigators were able to contact the environment of the alleged victim. The information received and the evidence from the car currently rule out that other people died in the accident, says Grossmann from the Schwyz canton police.
The Institute for Forensic Medicine at the University of Zurich will now investigate the cause of death and identify the victim. Before that, the Schwyz canton police could not provide any information on age or gender, said Grossmann.
On Sunday afternoon, the victim had been traveling from the south on the treacherous Axenstrasse in the direction of Brunnen. His car first grazed the rock face on the right, got into the oncoming lane, broke through a railing and fell 45 meters into Lake Lucerne. The reasons for the accident are not yet known. A surveillance camera from the Office for National Roads Operation could perhaps give the investigators more information. It provides a publicly available screenshot every few minutes from the Wolfsprung Rest Area heading north. After the accident, the camera was taken offline on Sunday.
As the Schwyz canton police reported on request, the car was found not far from the accident site. Due to the fall line, the investigators would have focused their search on a specific zone in the lake. Ultimately, this proved to be the right one, Grossmann told the NZZ.
Successful thanks to the camera boat
The topographical conditions made the search work challenging, said Carmen Surber, media spokeswoman for the Zurich cantonal police. A camera boat helped to find the car on the bottom of the lake. Locating the vehicle and people at a depth of around 180 meters was a particular challenge for the specialists. On Sunday, some of the necessary equipment was still missing.
The accident car lay on the bottom of the lake, inaccessible to divers
A second car was involved in the accident. He approached on the opposite lane and was hit by a loose wheel of the accident car. The passenger sustained minor injuries and received medical treatment at the scene.
As an “immediate measure”, the Federal Roads Office (Astra) lowered the maximum speed allowed in the affected area from 80 to 60 kilometers per hour. This speed limit applies until the end of the repair work.
