They are a great fun, but a recent fatal accident on a Swiss summer toboggan piste, plus a long list of incidents over the years has raised questions about the safety of this activity.
A 35-year-old employee was testing the summer toboggan run in Matten in canton Bern on July 4th, when he inexplicably fell from the luge and died.
“Investigations have shown that the machines require extensive maintenance,” the Cantonal Directorate of Public Works and Transport said.
“On this steep slope, the wheels and brakes are subject to heavy loads,” officials added, concluding that “conditions for the summer toboggan run to be authorised for operation and remain safely open to the public are no longer met.”
It is now closed until further notice.
This particular run has already proven fatal in 2010, when a 26-year-old Pakistani tourist died after being ejected from her toboggan.
Then, in 2014, a 16-year-old girl suffered a serious head injury, followed, in 2021, by another accident, with the victim ending up in a hospital.
Commenting on these accidents, Gabor Piskoty, an engineer at the Swiss Federal Institute for Materials Science and Technology Empa said he is “convinced that backrests and three-point seat belts would be absolutely essential” to prevent these misfortunes — though they would only be useful in the event of a rear-end collision, he added.
In Matten, however, the toboggans have no backrests and are only equipped with lap belts.
Accidents have happened on other runs in Switzerland as well
In total, the Swiss National Accident Insurance Fund (SUVA) recorded about 130 accidents per year in Switzerland on summer toboggan runs between 2019 and 2023, though most of them were not, thankfully, fatal or very serious.
This string of misfortunes naturally raises a question of just how safe these summer luges are in Switzerland.
The answer depends on who you ask.
Advertisement
Different views
On one side, the Association of Ski Lift Companies, which operates many of the luge runs in Switzerland (both summer and winter ones) insists that “regular mandatory inspections” regularly performed on these facilities “ensure maximum safety.”
“The standards must be met from structural, technical, and operational perspective,” the associations said.
But Bern’s Department of Public Works and Transport told Swiss media that summer toboggan runs are subject to less stringent requirements than roller coasters or other fairground attractions.
Unlike cable cars and ski lifts, summer toboggan runs are not subject to legal requirements for operational supervision, but they may be subject to voluntary supervision or periodic inspections by the canton or operator.
