Third Alpine crash leads to traffic chaos

A vital route through the Swiss Alps reopened yesterday after a third serious truck accident in less than a week

A vital route through the Swiss Alps reopened yesterday after a third serious truck accident in less than a week. The crash had caused traffic chaos on a major north-south European artery. The St Bernhard route, locally known as the San Bernardino, had closed earlier yesterday after a truck collided with a car, seriously injuring the truck driver.

The route is the nearest alternative to the Gotthard tunnel, shut down last week when a truck crash and fire killed at least 11 people. The San Bernardino route has been prone to disruption and was closed to cargo transport last Thursday after a truck crashed into oncoming traffic.

The closure of the Gotthard and problems at the St Bernhard tunnel have effectively cut Italy's main road links to the north. The Mont Blanc tunnel has been closed since 1999 after a crash and fire, also caused by a truck, killed 40 people.

At the Gotthard, forensic experts were yesterday awaiting a safety all-clear before searching burned-out vehicles for any more victims. Authorities are increasingly convinced that the final toll will not be much more than the 11 already confirmed dead.

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Search crews trained to find the remains of disaster victims planned to enter the tunnel on Monday but they postponed the entry to be sure they faced no chemical or toxic waste hazards.

The Defence Ministry has said mines buried in the walls of the passage - a remnant of Cold War-era preparations to prevent invasion by blowing up major bridges and tunnels - posed no risk.

Officials believe the corpse of the truck driver is still in the tunnel. He has been identified as a Turk working for a trucking firm in Belgium. Forensic crews may need up to three weeks to comb the ruined tunnel for remains.

Police have been matching accounts of survivors with the charred vehicles still there to assess what human remains might be found. They say all the people known to have been in the vehicles are either dead or accounted for.

Reports by relatives of scores of people missing after the disaster led to fears that more than 100 people might have died.

But police said on Monday only 28 were still unaccounted for and the number was falling steadily.