@@snogglewort1 How was it his fault? He was the one that got hit by the out of control truck, he tried to avoid it but wasn't able to, so he did the only moral thing he could do after that, get people to turn around while he walked himself to safety.
Despite the death toll of eleven, seeing valuable lessons being learnt so quickly and major action being taken to reduce a similar accident happening again was good to hear
It's honestly very nice to hear about a tragedy that wasn't caused by some corporate suit trying to save money, or take a shortcut at the expense of safety or whatnot. This accident just happened at the wrong place at the wrong time. And lessons from the accident were learned.
Friend's father owns a truck company and used to be a truck driver himself. On 14 Jan 1993 he was supposed to drive to Sweden. He didn't feel well, so he postponed the drive. That day the ferry Jan Heweliusz toppled and 55 died.
@ItsIdaho The description of the lessons that were learned is what make us think they learned from it. Also they *did* learn from previous fires, that's why it wasn't a complete disaster. Did you watch the video?
It sounds like they'd taken such good precautions during the tunnel's planning that the design really DID save lives--I was expecting this to be much worse when i heard the length of the tunnel and the rubber tires, plus a tunnel blockage. I'm sure it was still horrific.
Same, immediately thought of the kaprun disaster and thought it was gonna be much worse. Good on them for not cutting corners on safety, I can easily imagine a scenario with way more deaths where they didnt have the escape tunnel.
One of the things I really like about this channel is that they don't just present a tragedy for tragedy's sake. They present the improvements and learning that came out of that tragedy.
I like the total lack of sensationalism or opinion, just bare facts told simply but eloquently... a lot of channels can learn from this guy! Not having an American accent helps, too!
@@the_expidition427 Not the content but certainly the delivery and presentation. It's silly but as an American I find the average British accent to sound more refined and gentlemanly.
Kudos to the Swiss for having so many safety features already in place. Those features surely saved many lives. Also, big kudos to Bruno for helping to save so many lives while surely risking his own. He's a true hero. I hope he got an award or something for his actions. Lastly, Wow! Just Wow!! The Swiss already had probably one of the safest tunnels around and yet they learned from this and made it even safer!! That is just amazing!! I have much respect for them!!
@@ithecasticI can’t see any good arguments against multiculturalism. Each culture makes not only its own contributions, but contributes to the whole by aligning with other cultures. There is strength in numbers, and we are all humans seeking the same goals, especially life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Awards or otherwise, I have to imagine Bruno struggled with survivor guilt. A feeling of guilt for having been involved in the accident that killed people, even if it wasn't his fault
@@ithecastic Lol, the tunnel literally connects the Italian-speaking part with the German-speaking part of Switzerland. Switzerland is the poster child of how different cultures live together within a nation.
"Fun" fact. As this video comes out, the gothard base tunnel was just reopened after a two week close cause of a derailment inside it. No deaths or injuries and limited cargo spill. We take safety sriously here!
And it takes until the start of 2024 until passenger trains are allowed. For now it's only cargo trains. Passenger trains use the old tunnel, which takes about 1 hour longer.
This feels like a spiritual successor to the Kaprun and Mont Blanc videos - an illustration of lessons learned, rather than the tragedy that prompted the lessons in the first place.
That was exactly what I thought, I hadn’t heard of this tragedy before and was ready to hear another tale of missed safety but was delight to see al the lessons learnt from the disasters before.
An illustration of lessons learned both before and after. Before led to precautions like the construction of the safety areas which made the death toll only 11 instead of 40 or more--still tragic but not nearly as bad. And after, they improved their precautions still further to make it less likely for another such accident to happen.
The Mont Blanc tunnel fire happened two years prior to this and I believe the authorities which had tunnels under the Alps learned a lot from that and Switzerland in particular did a lot to aid in case an emergency happened, this is why casualties were an absolute minimum. The plus side to this is that this fire was close to a tunnel entrance where as the Mont Blanc fire were almost in the middle of the tunnel.
Usually these tunnel stories end up much worse. It's always nice to hear one when precautions were in place but an accident happened anyways. Then they all did what they could to prevent a similar accident from happening again.
@@Olhado256 with the full load of tyres in one of the trailers, the heat from the fire spiked at over 2.200° Celsius... A literal giant crematorium oven for those trapped inside... some of the bodies were effectively reduced to ash and bone fragments and even some of those who stayed in one piece had to be DNA tested because they were too badly charred to be visually ID'd... The pandemonium in there must have been unimaginable... :(
@@ursuss100 Thank goodness the Swiss thought of that when they built the road tunnel, adding safety areas for those people who couldn't escape easily. That alone saved more lives than this disaster ended up costing.
When I was a child me and my family drive through this tunnel to and from our summer holidays. It takes ages to drive through and always used to creep me out. When the fire happened I was reminded of how incredibly long the tunnel is and how terrifying it must have been to be stuck in there.
Being claustrophobic, this tunnel sounds scary enough by being so long, let alone add a truck accident. Terrifying. RIP to the 11 who lost their lives.
It is very freaky. Drove through it once en route to vacation in France at age 23. I was extremely hyper vigilant as the accident was still in our minds. The tunnel should never have been two ways in just one tunnel for 19km. I was having intrusive thoughts of crashing into the oncoming traffic while I got blinded by the lights in otherwise darkness over and over until we finally passed it. I almost had forgotten was daylight is. The time seemed unending.
It is terrifying at first. In 2006, I had a customer in Zürich, so I needed to drive through this tunnel often. I absolutely understand the "light at the end of the tunnel" expression. I literally panicked, until I saw that light. It can take almost 45 minutes to drive through it.
It is scary. I was so happy when we reached the end of it when my boyfriend and I drove through it. I kept looking at the clock after I asked him how long it takes at the start of it. 🙈 I also wasn't fond of the thought of being in a tunnel under the sea for a bit more than half an hour whenever I took the Eurostar train back home through the channel tunnel in the years that I lived in UK. Back then the German train operator, Deutsche Bahn, was considering to start servicing the channel tunnel as well. And I thought "hell no, please don't, you've got so many issues and breakdowns!". You wouldn't want to use an unreliable train through that tunnel. 😳
I spent my time in the military as a medic in Airolo. We actually executed an exercise that included saving people from the tunnel and then treating them in our Field Hospitals. Pretty neat experience as we got to train side by side with civil institutions!
I just want to say that you always tell these stories so well & with a lot of respect. Props to you for not using the shock value or exaggerating details
They were forward thinkers, concerned with safety, adding the escape tunnels and ventilation systems before anything actually happened. Then, when the accident happened, they learned from it and did what they could to improve on that. At least this accident was just that, an accident, not caused by someone trying to cut costs somewhere. It is nice to hear about a company that really does do the best they can, and tries to take care of people, no matter the cost.
As a side note the Gotthard Panorama Express (Wilhelm Tell Express) passes through this forever tunnel and is one the most incredible scenic train trips in the world which starts off with an amazing boat ride over Lake Lucerne which I think was included with the train ticket. One of my favorite vacations ever.
Always nice to see a video on this channel in which maybe the ending wasn't 100% happy, but also in which years of learning from others' past mistakes in the construction of the tunnel as well as swift and heroic thinking from those involved in the accident probably helped save tens if not hundreds of lives.
As tragic as it was, this accident is as testament to how valuable proper safety planning is. The unique features of portals and refuges saved lives and prevented the disaster form being so much worse.
I usually hear something like "emergency crew was late to respond" or "the exits wer painted on" It's nice to see good preparations and a worthy design. ✌
You can tell this tunnel is Swiss made simply by the engineers building a side tunnel as an escape route in case of emergency. We produce quality in these mountains!
well if you were really smart 2 tunnels going seperate directions would be a lot safer to avoid high speed head on collisions. a 2 lane high speed tunnel is insanley dangerous!
I had a conference from a lady who worked in tunnel security in Switzerland during my studies. I remember how she showed us simulations of human behaviour during a fire. At some point someone asked why some people just stayed there and died. She explained that it's normal and some people will just stand there like muppets and die.
@@PatricioGarcia1973 a head on collision is double that cuz if both cars are heading in oppisite directions going 80kmh it equals 160kph plus thats assuming they aren't speeding .
I remember this one as because when i was at school, We used this route to go on the Annual Ski trip to Courmayeur. Well, we were supposed to. We had to use the Gotthard pass instead, adding about 3 hours to the journey time. But I remember its being closed for far longer than 2 months. The year after the fire had happened, it was still closed and we had to use the Gotthard Pass for the second time. Maybe it was closed for some engineering work or something?
March 1999 was the Mont-Blanc fire and May 1999 the Tauerntunnel fire. Regarding the Tauerntunnel fire. My mum was one of the first cars that was stopped outside the tunnel. If she was in there I wouldn't be here.
It seems the one safety feature the tunnel did NOT have was some kind of lane separation to prevent this type of collision. I would assume that when the new tunnel opens, each road tunnel will only carry traffic moving one direction. I rode over St. Gotthard Pass in a tour bus, summer of 1973. It was a cloudy day, but the pass is unforgettable. Spectacular!
With the new tunnel both will be operated only in one direction - in the end. First, however, the old tunnel will be renovated (which will take quite long), during that time traffic will flow both ways in the new tunnel. It is worth noting according to current law both tunnels (when finished) will only allow traffic on one lane each. Meaning there will be no capacity increase. The whole new tunnel is only built for increased safety (with the side benefit of reducing downtime when there is maintanance or an incident in one tunnel). A physical lane separation however would cause additional problems. First, in order to stop a 40t-truck it would have to be massive, significantly increasing the tunnel width. But even more so, it would slow down emergency traffic through the tunnel (which then couldn't overtake any more) and would be a massive pain in case a car breaks down. A tow would then have to back up from wherever the next gap in the barrier is. These gaps would be a significant hazard themselves, posing the risk of a head-on-collision. Also, cars couldn't turn around any more which would be a significant disadvantage in case of fire.
I remember that accident, it was horrific. I probably go through the Gotthard tunnel once a year and I always notice that the temperature inside the tunnel higher than ambient temperature outside (35-36 degrees C in summer).
Tragic and terrifying, but it seems lessons were learned from previous tunnel fires (I forget the name of that one with so many killed .., you covered it early on.) Of course it also helped that it was close to one end, but still. if it had been constructed like older tunnels, all those who sought shelter after witnessing the accident on the north side would've been overcome.
I remember reading in The People's Almanac book once about a story where there was this train that ran to Italy, I think before the war - refugees would secretly ride on it. Once time the train got stuck in a tunnel, then carbon monoxide built up from coal smoke and everyone including the conductor died, when someone went on to a nearby town to report what happened before they died too. I can't remember the details, but would make an interesting video. EDIT - Balvano Train Disaster - happened in 1944.
The Mont Blanc fire is a lot more well known because of just how much more tragic it was. It's sad that stories like this one where better safety measures WERE in place aren't more well known.
This reminds me a little if the recent I95 underpass for near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It's ALREADY reopened, and they initially thought it would be months to years to repair. It just goes to show how motivating the prospect of a major detour of a primary truck route can motivate faster repairs...hopefully done properly. Bruno Saba, you are a legend.
Appreciate the lessons learned from this one. Such a good idea to add the safety corridors years beforehand. Everything went as best it could and at least some survived vs a much darker outcome as we've seen before elsewhere.
There is a really good documentary about the construction of the Gotthard base tunnel, it is impressive what the Swiss accomplished. And that ik a good time. Also amazing video as always, rhan you😊
My deepest condolences to everyone who lost loved ones the day of the accident.🥀 In spite of the accident, this is a "feel good" story about corporate responsibility, empathy towards employees and passengers, upgraded security measures, and positive vision for the tunnels' future. They're safely and efficiently moving forward. I wish them well.🌹
My parents told me about the fire when we drove through that tunnel and it freaked me out. I had thought that many more people had died. Thank you for telling us the detailed truth.
Back then, my father had to use this tunnel on his way from Germany to Italy very often. He was a truck driver himself and at the day this accident happened, he had just returned home from his last tour... He had to deliver freight back and forth two times a week at least. Arriving always in Italy Tuesday and Thursday morning ( driving time of around 7 hours at least, starting on the evening before at 21-22:00).
I hadn’t heard of this incident before, and I was expecting the worst with the loads of rubber tires, photographic film and textiles. Sad that people lost their lives, but a big cheer for the safety features that were already in place. And a bigger cheer for Bruno. His courageous actions to get the tunnel clear, allowing fire services access, surely saved even more lives.
Its interesting to see how much of a contrast this one was compared to the event only a few years prior in France, the Mont Blanc. I wonder if there were any improvements that had been implemented after that incident that had helped to limit the fatality of this event.
Of all the horrors that firefighters face I imagine that an intense blaze inside a tunnel must be one of the worst possible. It would be difficult to name a worse combination of combustible materials than tires, textiles and photographic film and of course the diesel and gasoline from the vehicles. Eleven lives lost is a tragedy but it could have been so much worse. This is an example of how much thought must be put into the safety of a structure before it is opened to the public.
It's nice to hear a story where some safety precautions and the warnings of drivers, especially the trucker, helped prevent the deaths of many more people.
Again another well researched tremendous episode. I read and watched a lot of media about this tragedy, in general I know more about the European disasters that you cover so I notice how well you cover this story. Thumbs up 👍🏻
Yeah that would be interesting too The road tunnel is closed as well at the moment because blocks of concretr have fallen off the roof, luckily without any injured
It says a lot about how much I've learned from this channel when I hear about the safety galleries and go "oh good, people have been learning lessons and hopefully the death toll won't be as high this time!"
Man, I love your videos! They’re simple yet classy, and you deliver a good sourced and high quality summary of events. Glass Pond was such a good choice for music too.
Just 2h ago I drove through the Gotthard tunnel and a van was tailgating me throughout the entire way! Had to think of this tragedy thats been covered by another channel once and now that I'm home I see this video newly uploaded, what a timing!
I always much rather use the pass instead of the tunnel because of this even tho I know it's not bound to happen again but I remember being so scared as a kid after that happened so close to us.
This story reminds me of the plot from the 90s movie Daylight with Sylvester Stallone, which was also about an explosion in a tunnel trapping everyone inside it
I live in Uri, near the tunnel. It was closed recently because a crack was found in the ceiling. The cars that were before the crack had to turn around (or drive backwards in one case) so they wouldn't pass the crack and no lives were put at risk. This just proves once again how seriously the authorities take the safety of the passengers
I've driven through that tunnel before, and have also taken the pass road when open in summer, its quite beautiful. Also remember there was a similar disaster in the Mont Blanc tunnel in 1999, and it remained closed for a few years afterwards.
My family and I drove through the tunnel in summer 2002, just a few months after it reopened. You could see the difference between the old und the repaired section. It felt strange to drive through there and knowing what happened. And this tunnel is reeeeaaaaly long!
The tunnel was so goddam well designed! So many prople survibed thanks to safety measures there were setup in advance. Just imagine how high the death toll would have been had there not been thlse safety chambers and a ventilized evacuation tunnel!! Smoke inhilation alone would have killed the majority as they had to walk at least an houre's worth of disfance at least to get to clean air. If not more. THIS is quality and good design! This is how you future proof!!
I don't understand how limiting trucks to one hundred and fifty an hour is going to cure stupidity. Whoever designed that tunnel should get a medal for his design. The idea of having those rescue rooms, and the way they were built so that they were safe from fire and apparently smoke, was absolute genius.
When human life is valued at least as equal to profits, tragic loss of life can be mitigated. Kudos to the Swiss for the original construction and for building back better.
It never ceases to amaze me that so many countries skimp on safety to save a few quid, when those like Switzerland don’t. This tunnel fire, as horrific as it was, was merely a blip purely because the Swiss made sure to build in as many safety measures as possible. And after, reviewed the details of the crash and made the tunnel progressively safer, not just by improving the tunnel itself, but more tight controlling of vehicles passing through it. And then decided it’d be safer still to build yet another tunnel to take the lorries through by rail instead. Meanwhile, a desperately needed trans-Pennine tunnel here in England is repeatedly quashed by cost on benefit analyses, meaning lorries travelling between Manchester and Sheffield is done on one narrow mountain pass which probably costs more in continuous repairs than the tunnel would’ve cost in the first place. There used to be three passes, but one collapsed in 1970 and the other is now so fragile that heavy vehicles are banned. Meanwhile, traffic increases every year…
Man that did not go as expected...I've seen documentaries on other long road tunnel fires, and thought this was the one that killed a ton of people. Even the refuge rooms in that one were deadly. The numerous safety features in this tunnel system actually worked as intended and saved lives.
There's also a third tunnel under construction so the two directions can no longer collide. Estimated completion is 2029. Source: Drove through it last week & saw signage.
You never tbink it will be yourself but neither did these people the fact of the matter no one is immune to these tragedies its simply an element of luck that you manage to avoid them
I had been through the old St Gotthard Pass in the late 70s and hated every moment of it. It totally creeped me out being underground for so long and I couldn't wait to get out of there. I would never go through it again.
I remember this! O.O It sparked a lot of argument on how to deal with a fire like tgis. We even built replicas of tge exact situation so fire fighters could train and figure out strategies. Just in case this happened again. When I was doing my military service I got to train at one of these sites, as I was in the civilias protection part of the army. I'm swiss, male. So mandetory service for me.
As an American male who's never had to serve my country the way you *and your fellow countrymen have, I respect you and your countrymen and thank you for your service to your country!
Bruno Saba really made the best out of a horrible situation by directing traffic to turn around. He surely saved lives.
True! So often in these tragic events there are one or more heroes that just become a side note
@@snogglewort1 How was it his fault? He was the one that got hit by the out of control truck, he tried to avoid it but wasn't able to, so he did the only moral thing he could do after that, get people to turn around while he walked himself to safety.
@@snogglewort1 It was not! Didn’t you watch the video?
Hero.
He’s Italian, would you expect anything else. 🇮🇹
Despite the death toll of eleven, seeing valuable lessons being learnt so quickly and major action being taken to reduce a similar accident happening again was good to hear
Definitely wouldn't happen in the States...lol
They also learned from the Mont Blanc Tunnel fire that was 2.5 years earlier.
Plus they already had safety procedures in place such as the tunnel refuges
SWITZERLAND MENTIONED 🧀 🇨🇭 🦅 🦅 🇨🇭
SWITZERLAND MENTIONED 🧀 🇨🇭 🦅 🦅 🇨🇭
It's honestly very nice to hear about a tragedy that wasn't caused by some corporate suit trying to save money, or take a shortcut at the expense of safety or whatnot. This accident just happened at the wrong place at the wrong time. And lessons from the accident were learned.
If it happened before this event, how could we use any lessons learned from this event two years in the past?
Friend's father owns a truck company and used to be a truck driver himself.
On 14 Jan 1993 he was supposed to drive to Sweden. He didn't feel well, so he postponed the drive.
That day the ferry Jan Heweliusz toppled and 55 died.
@ItsIdaho so we didn't learn from the current incident, because something similar happened....in different places...2 years prior.
@ItsIdaho The description of the lessons that were learned is what make us think they learned from it.
Also they *did* learn from previous fires, that's why it wasn't a complete disaster.
Did you watch the video?
Suits and money designed, approved, and paid for the tunnel. Like all big projects, they ok it all
It may be worth mentioning that a lot of people survived due to lessons learned from the Mont Blanc tunnel fire a few years prior
Mont Blanc tunnel accident? 8:02
@@jamesfracasse8178
Yes. Fascinating Horror also covered this accident.
@@jamesfracasse8178is that a question?
Yes, ban Belgians from the tunnel
Honestly when I clicked on this video I thought it was going to be another Mont Blanc. I'm glad that it didn't turn out as terrible as it could have
It sounds like they'd taken such good precautions during the tunnel's planning that the design really DID save lives--I was expecting this to be much worse when i heard the length of the tunnel and the rubber tires, plus a tunnel blockage. I'm sure it was still horrific.
The stuff of nightmares!
Same, immediately thought of the kaprun disaster and thought it was gonna be much worse. Good on them for not cutting corners on safety, I can easily imagine a scenario with way more deaths where they didnt have the escape tunnel.
Things would have gott-hard if there wasn't the amount of safety planning involved when they built it
ba-dump-chee! :)@@Idle_Hands
One of the things I really like about this channel is that they don't just present a tragedy for tragedy's sake. They present the improvements and learning that came out of that tragedy.
I like the total lack of sensationalism or opinion, just bare facts told simply but eloquently... a lot of channels can learn from this guy!
Not having an American accent helps, too!
@@andygarside2418 The accent of the creator doesn't change the content.
@@the_expidition427 I find American accents annoying, Americans themselves too! Also, it's called an expedition, not expidition...
@@the_expidition427 Not the content but certainly the delivery and presentation. It's silly but as an American I find the average British accent to sound more refined and gentlemanly.
Yep, we learn from our mistakes.
Props to them for spending the down time actually improving the safety of the tunnel, not just a little repave and a good scrub
Kudos to the Swiss for having so many safety features already in place. Those features surely saved many lives. Also, big kudos to Bruno for helping to save so many lives while surely risking his own. He's a true hero. I hope he got an award or something for his actions. Lastly, Wow! Just Wow!! The Swiss already had probably one of the safest tunnels around and yet they learned from this and made it even safer!! That is just amazing!! I have much respect for them!!
@@ithecasticprobably the most multicultural country in Europe!
@@ithecasticI can’t see any good arguments against multiculturalism. Each culture makes not only its own contributions, but contributes to the whole by aligning with other cultures. There is strength in numbers, and we are all humans seeking the same goals, especially life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Awards or otherwise, I have to imagine Bruno struggled with survivor guilt. A feeling of guilt for having been involved in the accident that killed people, even if it wasn't his fault
@@ithecastic Lol, the tunnel literally connects the Italian-speaking part with the German-speaking part of Switzerland. Switzerland is the poster child of how different cultures live together within a nation.
@@CynicalDelightxXx ????
Amazing how the Swiss can organise such big changes in such a short amount of time
SWITZERLAND MENTIONED 🧀 🇨🇭 🦅 🦅 🇨🇭
This what happens when there's lots of money available for infrastructure that doesn't all get siphoned away by corruption.
@@F_Print Have to spend all that gold they got from the nazi's back in the 30's & 40's somewhere.
Like clockwork!
@@F_Print Which also takes people caring about their fellow people and making sure to place the right people in charge of things.
"Fun" fact.
As this video comes out, the gothard base tunnel was just reopened after a two week close cause of a derailment inside it.
No deaths or injuries and limited cargo spill.
We take safety sriously here!
It was a German train
I was looking for a comment towards the derailment at the Gotthard railway tunnel 😅 fortunately there was only material damage, thank goodness.
Good on y'all!
And it takes until the start of 2024 until passenger trains are allowed. For now it's only cargo trains. Passenger trains use the old tunnel, which takes about 1 hour longer.
@@corysander7128 Saftey First.
But yeah :/
Sucks.
But on the other hand, that route is so much more interesting and beautifull!
This feels like a spiritual successor to the Kaprun and Mont Blanc videos - an illustration of lessons learned, rather than the tragedy that prompted the lessons in the first place.
That was exactly what I thought, I hadn’t heard of this tragedy before and was ready to hear another tale of missed safety but was delight to see al the lessons learnt from the disasters before.
An illustration of lessons learned both before and after. Before led to precautions like the construction of the safety areas which made the death toll only 11 instead of 40 or more--still tragic but not nearly as bad. And after, they improved their precautions still further to make it less likely for another such accident to happen.
The fact that they didnt cut corners or just fix the damage when they rebuilt is so good to hear not many governments do the good thing
thats the swiss for you
I gott-hard when I learned that too
The Mont Blanc tunnel fire happened two years prior to this and I believe the authorities which had tunnels under the Alps learned a lot from that and Switzerland in particular did a lot to aid in case an emergency happened, this is why casualties were an absolute minimum. The plus side to this is that this fire was close to a tunnel entrance where as the Mont Blanc fire were almost in the middle of the tunnel.
Usually these tunnel stories end up much worse. It's always nice to hear one when precautions were in place but an accident happened anyways. Then they all did what they could to prevent a similar accident from happening again.
Confined space fires are terrifying.
The tunnel literally became a furnace
@@Olhado256 with the full load of tyres in one of the trailers, the heat from the fire spiked at over 2.200° Celsius... A literal giant crematorium oven for those trapped inside... some of the bodies were effectively reduced to ash and bone fragments and even some of those who stayed in one piece had to be DNA tested because they were too badly charred to be visually ID'd...
The pandemonium in there must have been unimaginable... :(
@@ursuss100 Thank goodness the Swiss thought of that when they built the road tunnel, adding safety areas for those people who couldn't escape easily. That alone saved more lives than this disaster ended up costing.
When I was a child me and my family drive through this tunnel to and from our summer holidays. It takes ages to drive through and always used to creep me out. When the fire happened I was reminded of how incredibly long the tunnel is and how terrifying it must have been to be stuck in there.
Being claustrophobic, this tunnel sounds scary enough by being so long, let alone add a truck accident. Terrifying.
RIP to the 11 who lost their lives.
My mother would've freaked out! She hated driving through tunnels.
It is very freaky. Drove through it once en route to vacation in France at age 23. I was extremely hyper vigilant as the accident was still in our minds. The tunnel should never have been two ways in just one tunnel for 19km. I was having intrusive thoughts of crashing into the oncoming traffic while I got blinded by the lights in otherwise darkness over and over until we finally passed it. I almost had forgotten was daylight is. The time seemed unending.
It is terrifying at first. In 2006, I had a customer in Zürich, so I needed to drive through this tunnel often. I absolutely understand the "light at the end of the tunnel" expression. I literally panicked, until I saw that light. It can take almost 45 minutes to drive through it.
I agree, no way could I be underground that long.
It is scary. I was so happy when we reached the end of it when my boyfriend and I drove through it. I kept looking at the clock after I asked him how long it takes at the start of it. 🙈
I also wasn't fond of the thought of being in a tunnel under the sea for a bit more than half an hour whenever I took the Eurostar train back home through the channel tunnel in the years that I lived in UK. Back then the German train operator, Deutsche Bahn, was considering to start servicing the channel tunnel as well. And I thought "hell no, please don't, you've got so many issues and breakdowns!". You wouldn't want to use an unreliable train through that tunnel. 😳
I spent my time in the military as a medic in Airolo. We actually executed an exercise that included saving people from the tunnel and then treating them in our Field Hospitals. Pretty neat experience as we got to train side by side with civil institutions!
I just want to say that you always tell these stories so well & with a lot of respect. Props to you for not using the shock value or exaggerating details
There's many similar channels out there that sadly abuse shock value and exaggeration. Mad respect to FH!
As someone living in Switzerland I’m looking forward to see you cover this tragedy! Love your videos
They were forward thinkers, concerned with safety, adding the escape tunnels and ventilation systems before anything actually happened. Then, when the accident happened, they learned from it and did what they could to improve on that. At least this accident was just that, an accident, not caused by someone trying to cut costs somewhere. It is nice to hear about a company that really does do the best they can, and tries to take care of people, no matter the cost.
A weird "Fascinating Horror" video in which the safety features actually worked!
The one thing that couldn’t be done then was one direction traffic. When the new tunnel is completed, that should solve the problem.
A rare example on this channel of everyone doing the right thing
As a side note the Gotthard Panorama Express (Wilhelm Tell Express) passes through this forever tunnel and is one the most incredible scenic train trips in the world which starts off with an amazing boat ride over Lake Lucerne which I think was included with the train ticket. One of my favorite vacations ever.
Always nice to see a video on this channel in which maybe the ending wasn't 100% happy, but also in which years of learning from others' past mistakes in the construction of the tunnel as well as swift and heroic thinking from those involved in the accident probably helped save tens if not hundreds of lives.
Certainly sounds like they learned from previous problems and did a lot to increase safety right from the planning stages. Thank you FH.
Fire shelters & ventilation in a long, narrow roadway tunnel are an EXCELLENT idea, and should be a requirement.
As tragic as it was, this accident is as testament to how valuable proper safety planning is. The unique features of portals and refuges saved lives and prevented the disaster form being so much worse.
I usually hear something like "emergency crew was late to respond" or "the exits wer painted on"
It's nice to see good preparations and a worthy design. ✌
You can tell this tunnel is Swiss made simply by the engineers building a side tunnel as an escape route in case of emergency.
We produce quality in these mountains!
well if you were really smart 2 tunnels going seperate directions would be a lot safer to avoid high speed head on collisions. a 2 lane high speed tunnel is insanley dangerous!
Nationalism is stupid
@@mromatic1780km/h is not high speed if you maintain your distance.
I had a conference from a lady who worked in tunnel security in Switzerland during my studies. I remember how she showed us simulations of human behaviour during a fire. At some point someone asked why some people just stayed there and died. She explained that it's normal and some people will just stand there like muppets and die.
@@PatricioGarcia1973 a head on collision is double that cuz if both cars are heading in oppisite directions going 80kmh it equals 160kph plus thats assuming they aren't speeding .
I live like 15 minutes away from there quite surreal seeing a video on this.
I remember this one as because when i was at school, We used this route to go on the Annual Ski trip to Courmayeur. Well, we were supposed to. We had to use the Gotthard pass instead, adding about 3 hours to the journey time. But I remember its being closed for far longer than 2 months. The year after the fire had happened, it was still closed and we had to use the Gotthard Pass for the second time. Maybe it was closed for some engineering work or something?
March 1999 was the Mont-Blanc fire and May 1999 the Tauerntunnel fire.
Regarding the Tauerntunnel fire. My mum was one of the first cars that was stopped outside the tunnel. If she was in there I wouldn't be here.
I’m so glad that the tunnel had fireproof safety refuges. Finally a story where something was built with safety in mind!
It seems the one safety feature the tunnel did NOT have was some kind of lane separation to prevent this type of collision. I would assume that when the new tunnel opens, each road tunnel will only carry traffic moving one direction.
I rode over St. Gotthard Pass in a tour bus, summer of 1973. It was a cloudy day, but the pass is unforgettable. Spectacular!
That‘s the way it will be 👍🏻
With the new tunnel both will be operated only in one direction - in the end. First, however, the old tunnel will be renovated (which will take quite long), during that time traffic will flow both ways in the new tunnel.
It is worth noting according to current law both tunnels (when finished) will only allow traffic on one lane each. Meaning there will be no capacity increase. The whole new tunnel is only built for increased safety (with the side benefit of reducing downtime when there is maintanance or an incident in one tunnel).
A physical lane separation however would cause additional problems. First, in order to stop a 40t-truck it would have to be massive, significantly increasing the tunnel width. But even more so, it would slow down emergency traffic through the tunnel (which then couldn't overtake any more) and would be a massive pain in case a car breaks down. A tow would then have to back up from wherever the next gap in the barrier is. These gaps would be a significant hazard themselves, posing the risk of a head-on-collision. Also, cars couldn't turn around any more which would be a significant disadvantage in case of fire.
I remember that accident, it was horrific.
I probably go through the Gotthard tunnel once a year and I always notice that the temperature inside the tunnel higher than ambient temperature outside (35-36 degrees C in summer).
Tragic and terrifying, but it seems lessons were learned from previous tunnel fires (I forget the name of that one with so many killed .., you covered it early on.) Of course it also helped that it was close to one end, but still. if it had been constructed like older tunnels, all those who sought shelter after witnessing the accident on the north side would've been overcome.
I remember reading in The People's Almanac book once about a story where there was this train that ran to Italy, I think before the war - refugees would secretly ride on it. Once time the train got stuck in a tunnel, then carbon monoxide built up from coal smoke and everyone including the conductor died, when someone went on to a nearby town to report what happened before they died too. I can't remember the details, but would make an interesting video. EDIT - Balvano Train Disaster - happened in 1944.
There’s a Disasters of the Century video on RUclips. That was a God-awful disaster.
Never heard of this one, the Mont Blanc tunnel fire seems a lot more well known.
Ah, thanks for that. I was thinking I'd remembered stuff wrong, it would have been the Mont Blanc one I was thinking of.
I never had either, although we were still reeling from 9/11.
The Mont Blanc fire is a lot more well known because of just how much more tragic it was. It's sad that stories like this one where better safety measures WERE in place aren't more well known.
I will never not click on one of your videos. Always non-biased and respectful. Always to the point and accurate.
We appreciate your insights on this. Keep working hard.
Always insightful commentary. I've heard of many of these stories, but the level of detail here is peerless!
I like the positive attitude towards this horror. I realize the real horror is not learning and repeating the same mistakes.
Thank you so much for covering this case! I live about 30 minutes away from the tunnel, so hearing about it again really brings back memories...
I... I don't know how to react when officials not only take responsibility for a tragedy, but make active, timely steps to prevent a repeat....
Imagine someone with claustrophobia and a phobia of being caught in a fire. It really doesn't bear thinking about.
This reminds me a little if the recent I95 underpass for near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It's ALREADY reopened, and they initially thought it would be months to years to repair. It just goes to show how motivating the prospect of a major detour of a primary truck route can motivate faster repairs...hopefully done properly.
Bruno Saba, you are a legend.
Appreciate the lessons learned from this one. Such a good idea to add the safety corridors years beforehand. Everything went as best it could and at least some survived vs a much darker outcome as we've seen before elsewhere.
I love this man's videos so much, keep these bangers coming lol
Uh No
There is a really good documentary about the construction of the Gotthard base tunnel, it is impressive what the Swiss accomplished. And that ik a good time.
Also amazing video as always, rhan you😊
Big respect to the Italian migrant workers risking their live working there
That extra train carrying trucks was such a good idea. Well done to the people working on the tunnel.
This is one of the best channels on RUclips.
Good day to you good sir. Enjoyed your covering of horror stories in a respectful way. thank you.
This is such a great channel, one of my favorites.
Thank you for your videos! My awareness for my surroundings has been heightened - for the good.
Keep this channel growing! ❤️
My deepest condolences to everyone who lost loved ones the day of the accident.🥀 In spite of the accident, this is a "feel good" story about corporate responsibility, empathy towards employees and passengers, upgraded security measures, and positive vision for the tunnels' future. They're safely and efficiently moving forward. I wish them well.🌹
My parents told me about the fire when we drove through that tunnel and it freaked me out.
I had thought that many more people had died.
Thank you for telling us the detailed truth.
Back then, my father had to use this tunnel on his way from Germany to Italy very often. He was a truck driver himself and at the day this accident happened, he had just returned home from his last tour... He had to deliver freight back and forth two times a week at least. Arriving always in Italy Tuesday and Thursday morning ( driving time of around 7 hours at least, starting on the evening before at 21-22:00).
I hadn’t heard of this incident before, and I was expecting the worst with the loads of rubber tires, photographic film and textiles. Sad that people lost their lives, but a big cheer for the safety features that were already in place. And a bigger cheer for Bruno. His courageous actions to get the tunnel clear, allowing fire services access, surely saved even more lives.
Its interesting to see how much of a contrast this one was compared to the event only a few years prior in France, the Mont Blanc. I wonder if there were any improvements that had been implemented after that incident that had helped to limit the fatality of this event.
Of all the horrors that firefighters face I imagine that an intense blaze inside a tunnel must be one of the worst possible. It would be difficult to name a worse combination of combustible materials than tires, textiles and photographic film and of course the diesel and gasoline from the vehicles. Eleven lives lost is a tragedy but it could have been so much worse. This is an example of how much thought must be put into the safety of a structure before it is opened to the public.
I love these videos. They truly are Fascinating. Thank you!
It's nice to hear a story where some safety precautions and the warnings of drivers, especially the trucker, helped prevent the deaths of many more people.
Again another well researched tremendous episode. I read and watched a lot of media about this tragedy, in general I know more about the European disasters that you cover so I notice how well you cover this story. Thumbs up 👍🏻
Looking forward to watching a video covering the Gotthard base tunnel derailment that occurred in August 2023!
Yeah that would be interesting too
The road tunnel is closed as well at the moment because blocks of concretr have fallen off the roof, luckily without any injured
It says a lot about how much I've learned from this channel when I hear about the safety galleries and go "oh good, people have been learning lessons and hopefully the death toll won't be as high this time!"
I just realized that you uploaded this video on the same day the tunnel opened to the public (Sept 5th) well done
Any day this channel uploads a new video is going to be a good day
One of the few disasters I hadn't heard about. Thanks for the information.
I can't believe someone was able to get that photo of the burning trucks. Amazing!
Man, I love your videos! They’re simple yet classy, and you deliver a good sourced and high quality summary of events. Glass Pond was such a good choice for music too.
"Hmm, textiles and film, that's fairly flammable, what's in the other truck?"
"A shitload of tires? Yeah that'll do it"
Just 2h ago I drove through the Gotthard tunnel and a van was tailgating me throughout the entire way! Had to think of this tragedy thats been covered by another channel once and now that I'm home I see this video newly uploaded, what a timing!
I always much rather use the pass instead of the tunnel because of this even tho I know it's not bound to happen again but I remember being so scared as a kid after that happened so close to us.
Isch doch eh viel schöner😂
This story reminds me of the plot from the 90s movie Daylight with Sylvester Stallone, which was also about an explosion in a tunnel trapping everyone inside it
I was just thinking that
@@jdfox8889 Yup it's actually a pretty good movie ngl
I live in Uri, near the tunnel. It was closed recently because a crack was found in the ceiling. The cars that were before the crack had to turn around (or drive backwards in one case) so they wouldn't pass the crack and no lives were put at risk. This just proves once again how seriously the authorities take the safety of the passengers
I've driven through that tunnel before, and have also taken the pass road when open in summer, its quite beautiful. Also remember there was a similar disaster in the Mont Blanc tunnel in 1999, and it remained closed for a few years afterwards.
I really appreciate your channel, I hope history teachers find these videos and use it. Would of helped me, keep up the great videos 😊👍
My family and I drove through the tunnel in summer 2002, just a few months after it reopened. You could see the difference between the old und the repaired section. It felt strange to drive through there and knowing what happened. And this tunnel is reeeeaaaaly long!
I always look forward to Tuesday mornings
One of the best and most respectful horror channels on the yts
New fear unlocked: being stuck in a tunnel fire hopelessly waiting to die
Thank you for a great video. Very interesting and informative. Love your channel❤
The tunnel was so goddam well designed!
So many prople survibed thanks to safety measures there were setup in advance.
Just imagine how high the death toll would have been had there not been thlse safety chambers and a ventilized evacuation tunnel!!
Smoke inhilation alone would have killed the majority as they had to walk at least an houre's worth of disfance at least to get to clean air. If not more.
THIS is quality and good design!
This is how you future proof!!
So true xx❤
I don't understand how limiting trucks to one hundred and fifty an hour is going to cure stupidity.
Whoever designed that tunnel should get a medal for his design. The idea of having those rescue rooms, and the way they were built so that they were safe from fire and apparently smoke, was absolute genius.
The limiting to 150 an hour is in tandem with the traffic control system which keeps the trucks apart. 👍👍
It's impossible to cure stupidity, but I think it's a step in the right direction towards at least mitigating any damage it might cause.
@@RealBradMiller A lot is won if you can avoid 2 stupid coming too close together
@@eljanrimsa5843 Can someone please let my parents know. Thank you.
Lol jk.😭😂
When human life is valued at least as equal to profits, tragic loss of life can be mitigated. Kudos to the Swiss for the original construction and for building back better.
It never ceases to amaze me that so many countries skimp on safety to save a few quid, when those like Switzerland don’t. This tunnel fire, as horrific as it was, was merely a blip purely because the Swiss made sure to build in as many safety measures as possible. And after, reviewed the details of the crash and made the tunnel progressively safer, not just by improving the tunnel itself, but more tight controlling of vehicles passing through it. And then decided it’d be safer still to build yet another tunnel to take the lorries through by rail instead.
Meanwhile, a desperately needed trans-Pennine tunnel here in England is repeatedly quashed by cost on benefit analyses, meaning lorries travelling between Manchester and Sheffield is done on one narrow mountain pass which probably costs more in continuous repairs than the tunnel would’ve cost in the first place. There used to be three passes, but one collapsed in 1970 and the other is now so fragile that heavy vehicles are banned. Meanwhile, traffic increases every year…
Man that did not go as expected...I've seen documentaries on other long road tunnel fires, and thought this was the one that killed a ton of people. Even the refuge rooms in that one were deadly. The numerous safety features in this tunnel system actually worked as intended and saved lives.
There's also a third tunnel under construction so the two directions can no longer collide. Estimated completion is 2029. Source: Drove through it last week & saw signage.
As soon as you said "rubber tires/tyres" my heart sank.
You never tbink it will be yourself but neither did these people the fact of the matter no one is immune to these tragedies its simply an element of luck that you manage to avoid them
I found these long tunnels a nightmarish experience, pleased I will never need to enter them again.
I had been through the old St Gotthard Pass in the late 70s and hated every moment of it. It totally creeped me out being underground for so long and I couldn't wait to get out of there. I would never go through it again.
I vaguely remember being in the car, on a train, going through the Gotthard Pass in ‘79.
My bell is on for all your videos. This is great content. Much love and respect from Anaheim California USA 🇺🇸
I remember this! O.O
It sparked a lot of argument on how to deal with a fire like tgis.
We even built replicas of tge exact situation so fire fighters could train and figure out strategies.
Just in case this happened again.
When I was doing my military service I got to train at one of these sites, as I was in the civilias protection part of the army.
I'm swiss, male.
So mandetory service for me.
Respectable, it's unfortunate that you must, but at least you're doing something good for your country.
@@antlerman7644
Let me guess, US citizen?
@@e28forever30our service members have never known anything but illegal & immoral military action 😢
As an American male who's never had to serve my country the way you *and your fellow countrymen have, I respect you and your countrymen and thank you for your service to your country!
@@FilthyCasual268
Oh please…🙄
This one was genuinely fascinating.
I’ve driven through this tunnel. Like all Swiss tunnels, it’s spectacular. Switzerland is a little fairytale country. I love it.
Excellent as always 👍
we were driving thru this every year and I was always panicking just thinking about it
I disagree
to me panicking.....thats not really an opinion its rather a feeling XDXD@@skelly4998