Toni H. died outside the evacuation zone
Sheep breeder Toni H. died outside the evacuation zone – was that a mistake by the authorities?
In the Lötschental, a person was presumably buried by the rock masses, although they were just outside the restricted area. A similar constellation deals with the courts when bondo.
When an estimated 10 million cubic meters of rock and ice mass from Birch glacier fell into the Lötschental on Wednesday afternoon of May 28th at 3:25 p.m., the village of Blatten was deserted.
The regional leadership staff Lötschental had had the approximately 300 inhabitants of the village evacuated nine days earlier due to the risk of lands on the small Nesthorn. This decision saved numerous lives.
Nevertheless, the clash of blatings has most likely demanded a death. A person has been missing since then. As the « Sonntagszeitung » writes, it is the sheep breeder Toni H. He was buried in a stable in the hamlet of Tännmattä.
The building was 300 meters outside the official evacuation zone and was classified as not endangered by the authorities. The search for the missing person was recorded on Monday – so far unsuccessful.
At the request of CH Media, the public prosecutor’s office of the canton of Valais confirms that it has started an investigation. The search for the missing person is currently in the foreground.
Only later, the public prosecutor should deal with the questions of content: Would the authorities in the Lötschental have had to define a larger evacuation zone? Did you correctly assess the risk? Would Toni H. death be avoided?
« No exact science »
Experts are currently not accusations of the management staff and the office for natural hazards of the Canton of Valais. So Walther Wildi, emeritus geology professor at the University of Geneva, told the « View »it would be wrong to make blame now.
In the end it was the experts who have offset themselves: « In the case of the sheep holder, they misjudged 300 meters. » With a 2.5 km long rubble cone, that is only ten percent. Wildi points out that the calculation models that are made in cases like blatts were based on rock. However, glacier mass is more unpredictable and you have significantly less experience with it
The Ticino cantonal geologist Andrea Pedrazzini also praised In the western Swiss Radio RTS The work of his colleagues in Valais: « Thanks to the surveillance measures, they were able to prevent the worst. »
To the case of the missing sheep breeder, Pedrazzini says that the calculations to determine an evacuation personal body are a challenge for the authorities due to the many uncertainties: « This is not an exact science. »
Process for dead hikers in Bondo
The legal clarification of Toni H.’s disappearance is still at the very beginning in the hamlet Tännmattä. The situation is different in the case of the landlord at Piz Cengalo near Bondo GR. On August 23, 2017, eight mountain goers were killed in the lands on the clash with subsequent murgang on August 23, 2017. There is still no trace of them.
Almost eight years later, her death is still the subject of a court procedure. This year there will be a negotiation at the Maloja regional court.
Five people are charged with multiple negligent killing: two employees of the Graubünden Office for Forest and Natural Rounds, a geologist, who is commissioned by the Office of External, and two representatives of the Bregaglia community concerned, including FDP national councilor Anna Giacometti. At the time of the clash, she was a community president and head of the crisis.
The focus of the indictment is whether the official representatives acted in a confidence when they decided not to block the hiking trails in the danger zone in Val Bondasca as a precaution.
The fact that the process occurs is based on a successful complaint by relatives of the fatalities, who the Federal Supreme Court rightly called in February 2021. The Graubünden public prosecutor’s office had hired its investigations in 2019.
She justified this with the fact that the landslide was not predictable. The public prosecutor’s office was based on an expert report where employees of the Graubünden Office for Forest and Natural Rounds had worked significantly.
Explosive: It was experts in the same office who had advised the local authorities a week before the lands on the land that Val Bondasca continued to not block.
According to the Federal Court’s complaint, the Graubünden public prosecutor commissioned the geologist Thierry Oppikofer with an independent report. In it, he clearly criticizes the risk assessment of the experts and the actions of the authorities.
Make decision processes transparent
Oppikofer has followed the events in the Lötschental in the media. From a distance, he also gives the local authorities good grades: « In my first assessment, the authorities acted properly with their evacuation, » says Oppikofer. The question of whether the Evacuation Ssperimeter has been properly determined was more difficult, Oppikofer said. To do this, he would have to have an insight into the details and parameters of the modeling carried out.
It is undisputed that the chaining of the rock drops on the small nesthorn and the resulting demolition of the birch glacier made these modeling less precise. « How such a complex process takes place with a mixture of ice and rock mass is much more difficult to predict than a classic landfoot. »
Geologist Thierry Oppikofer hopes that the processes and decision -making processes of the authorities are well documented when sheet falls are well documented and later communicated openly and transparently: « This allows us to get an insight into work and enables us to draw conclusions on how we can better prepare for the next event of this kind. »
