Last Saturday, at around 12.30 pm, a 25-year-old French woman was cycling along the Chemin de Remeaux in Troistorrents, in Lower Valais. A motorcyclist attempted to overtake her and collided head-on with her. The emergency services arrived but were unable to save her. The Valais cantonal police identified her on Wednesday: aged 25. The Lower Valais Public Prosecutor’s Office has launched an investigation to determine exactly what happened.
There is little mystery to the story: the cyclist was riding correctly in the wrong direction. The motorcyclist overtook badly. A manoeuvre that went so wrong it cost a life, on a mountain road in the middle of August, at midday. This summer, Switzerland is already being talked about as the country with the biggest rise in road deaths in Europe, and incidents like this help to explain why.
Cycling in Switzerland has its advantages in towns, with good signage and plenty of dedicated cycle lanes. But on secondary mountain roads in summer, sharing the road with motorbikes and cars can be a real problem. Traffic increases, as do speeds, and the verges become narrower. The Valais in August is beautiful. It’s also a place where you need to keep your eyes very open whilst cycling.
If you have family or friends who are going mountain biking this summer, make sure they know this: road signs and marked cycle lanes aren’t always enough when someone’s coming the other way in a right hurry.