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Baby survives as parents die in Alpine crash

A couple were killed and their baby miraculously survived with serious injuries when their small cable car plunged 30 metres into the forested mountainside.

Published: 4 August 2013 12:45 CEST
Baby survives as parents die in Alpine crash
A funicular in operation in the Schwyz region. Photo: picture alliance/dpa-tmn

Police in the mountainous central canton of Schwyz said it was not clear why the family had been using the gondola, which was  meant only for the transport of goods.

The accident occurred on Saturday at Alp Bärlaui, when a wooden gondola carrying the family plunged 30 metres (98 feet) into the forested mountainside.

Police said the car came off the cable 900 metres into its doomed journey from its top station at Alp Bärlaui.

The 38-year-old Swiss father and 31-year-old Canadian mother tumbled over a rock face and were killed instantly, police said.

Their one-year-old baby daughter was seriously injured.

The baby's life was saved by the fact that she was being carried in a rucksack, and by branches and bushes which stopped her fall.

Transport gondolas make it easier to move supplies to and from mountain chalets and pastures, and it is illegal for them to carry people.

Police said the infant was out of danger.
 

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DRUNK

Drunk couple nicked for gondola joyride

Police were shocked to find a young Italian couple asleep in a stolen gondola on the Grand Canal at 3am on Friday morning.

Published: 14 August 2015 16:47 CEST
Drunk couple nicked for gondola joyride
A young couple takes a legal gondola trip. Photo: Joakim Berndes/Flickr

At first, the police officers who were on a routine patrol presumed that the gondola was empty and had merely come adrift from its mooring, Ansa reported.

But as they approached the boat they realized there was an inebriated young Italian couple asleep inside…

Venice is of course one of the world's most romantic cities and after one too many glasses of prosecco, anything seems possible.

After imbibing too much, the young Italian couple decided it would be a good idea to go for a gondola ride on the Venetian lagoon. The only problem was they didn't have a gondola.

The youngsters opted to steal one of the typical Venetian boats – choosing one that was owned by the city council and used to transport people from one shore of the Grand Canal to the other.

Once on board the couple set off for a tour of the Venetian lagoon, which they achieved with some difficulty.

Then they sailed the boat up the Grand Canal. 

Once they reached a dark spot, the considerable effort of joyriding in a gondola must have caught up with them, and the couple fell asleep in the boat.

Being young, drunk and in love might not be a crime: but theft and reckless endangerment are – and that's exactly what the young duo were charged with after being taken to the police station. 

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