Abstract
Thursday, October 24th 2001: Two roadtractors were involved in a fatal head-on collision about 1 km north of the south entrance of the Gotthard Tunnel in the Swiss Alps. Within minutes the two road-tractors were burning violently, producing a deadly fire storm inside the tunnel. One of the two road-tractors carried 1099 car tires. The heat, smoke and soot filled about 2.5 km of the tunnel. 11 people died, most of them due to intoxication (carbon monoxide). The structure of the tunnel was seriously damaged over a distance of about 1 km and was closed for the individual traffic until Christmas 2001, for buses, trucks and road-tractors until march 2002.
Under the lead of the prosecutor Mr. Antonio Perugini two groups of experts analysed the traffic accident and the fire in close cooperation with experts from Austria (Tauern Tunnel), France and Italy (Mont Blanc Tunnel).