This is horrible.. an early morning accident in our village wednesday night / thursday morning... if the first driver hadn't stopped to warn two girls walking that it was not safe to walk there... the one probably would have been safe.
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http://www.tdg.ch/actu/suisse/automo...ies-2010-10-07

Une Genevoise d’une vingtaine d’années a été renversée par une voiture dans la nuit de mercredi à jeudi à Mies (VD).
Le conducteur, un quinquagénaire domicilié dans la région, a pris la fuite. Il a toutefois pu être identifié par la police, qui l’a interpellé et placé en détention préventive.
L’accident s’est produit de nuit, vers 2h30, alors que la jeune femme marchait au bord de la route Suisse avec une amie, a expliqué jeudi la police cantonale vaudoise. Une première voiture s’est arrêtée à leur hauteur, feux de panne enclenchés, pour leur dire que leur présence était dangereuse sur ce tronçon peu éclairé.


C’est alors qu’une seconde voiture est arrivée.......................

My french is bad - Is this right?

Around 2:30am, two girls were walking on Route Suisse, when car one stopped to tell them it was unsafe because it is not well lit. Car two swerved to avoid hitting car one and instead ran into one of the girls. The driver of car two fled but is now in custody. The victim died later in hospital.

What a horrible situation!

yep... thats it.... we only knew of it because one of mrs G's colleagues.. who lives in Founex was diverted off the lake road, on his way to work at about 7.am , up into our village ( on the Tannay turnoff ) and then back onto the lake road down at the Mies round'a'bout ... apparently the accident happened just at about the Mies Plage.

This sort of thing is really horrific. A friend of ours once stopped at a pedestrian crossing to let an elderly couple cross the road. A car coming in the other direction didn't stop and killed the one and injured the other. If our friend hadn't stopped they would have had to wait a bit longer, but would probably have got across the road safely.

Google translate... for our German speakers...
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A Genevan than twenty years has been hit by a car on the night of Wednesday to Thursday in Mies (VD). The driver, a fifty-year resident in the region, has fled. He has however been identified by police, who arrested and remanded in custody.

The accident happened at night, around 2:30, while the young woman walked along the road with a friend Switzerland, said Thursday the Vaud cantonal police. The first car stopped at their height, lights switched down to tell them that their presence was dangerous on this stretch poorly lit.

Driver flees

Then a second car arrived. To avoid the stopped car, the driver would have swerved to the left, hitting one of two young women. It has come to hit the windshield with her head, then fell heavily on the road twenty yards away.

The culprit then continued his journey without his aid or notify police.

Investigation

The victim, a Portuguese resident in Geneva, was hospitalized at HUG where she died several hours later.

The device set up research helped identify and arrest the driver at fault just before 8 o'clock this morning. He was remanded in custody for purposes of the investigation and was stripped of his license.

The investigating judge of the district of Côte opened a criminal investigation.

There is a horrible unreality of the danger of traffic from non-drivers. If the road were a 100,000 volt power cable with the power shot down it at random, non drivers would have a lot of respect for it.

But it isn't and somehow pedestrians are oblivious to the live danger they put people in.

An elderly aunt of mine when she was 75 stopped at night to help someone who had broken down on a country road. She was standing between her car and the other one, when a third vehicle ran into the back of her car and crushed her legs. She recovered but never walked again...

Horrific.

What I don't understand is why they would be walking in the middle of the road there (to be hit by a left swerve one is in the middle, right?)?? Why not at least on the bike path?

no... I didn't understand that either.... I was wondering perhaps if driver one called the girls from the side of the road to his side of the car to chat

I wonder also if driver one should be charged with unsafe stopping ? ... contributory negligence ? ( is there such a thing? ) if I read correctly he pulled over and turned off his headlights

apparently the first driver stoped and turned on the emergency blinking lights (feux de panne enclenchés).
I think the first driver was driving in the opposite direction of the girls. Stopped on the right side and called them.
When the second driver came he did not realize the car in front of him (driving same direction) stopped, he pulled then over to the left side and hit the girls who were standing on the left side.

What if..... I think it's fate. The first driver should not feel guilty as he/she tried to warn and help.

ahhh.... I didn't know that term so I was dependent on google for that and it became "turned down the lights"

driver two = drunk ?... who knows

merci beaucoup - I also did not know this term.

It was my first suspicion as well, when trying to understand who in heck would drive away from such a thing. sigh.

It's a horrible accident. I remember a very important advice once given to me by a TCS patrol guy: if you stop on a highway emergency lane, the safest place for you and your passengers is behind the security barrier.
He explained that most casualties happen when people stay in or around the car.

the journalist used "feux de panne", but the official name I learned for the driving license is "feux de détresse".
détresse = distress

Simply because people panic. My cousin was driving a car that killed a girl, she walked out between two parked cars into the side of the car as he was going past. She died instantly as her head hit one of the other cars but he panicked & kept on driving. He did drive straight to a friends house and informed the parents who rang the police. Driving away was not a malicious act that was thought out it was pure panic on his part. After an investigation he was totally exonerated of any blame for the accident and was not even charged with leaving the scene but that does not mean it has not haunted him ever since.

I can understand this completely.

However in this case, I think they did not find the 2nd driver until 8am this morning. He could have called the police in those five hours, but did not.

Why on earth would he be drunk? He hit two girls who were presently being warned that a driver might not see them. I can't see any fault here:
You can't always see people on the sides of unlit roads.
Car number 1 could have had their lights on, but then it could have blinded the girls he was trying to warn.
Girls could have been safer, but perhaps you can't reasonably expect people not to walk on the sides of unlit roads, especially in a rural area where very few of the roads are lit.
You can't reasonably expect the authorities to light all the roads, especially rural ones.

I suppose people could wear high visibility clothing, but they were kids - it's tough enough to stop them having sex and doing drugs, never mind wearing a fluorescent yellow vest on the way home from a party

I don't understand why he didn't slow right down after seeing the car with hazard lights on?

	Quote:	MrVertigo
	the journalist used "feux de panne", but the official name I learned for the driving license is "feux de détresse". détresse = distress

I've never heard either term. I never had to take a Swiss driving test.. and oddly enuf I’ve never had the need to talk to my colleagues about “flashers” so I can't imagine what sort of fumbling I would come up with if I had to describe them

the feux pour le urgence
the truc qui "*blink blink blink*

This is usually a behavior from someone drunks. By doing this they hope the % of alcohol in the blood dropes before they get caught.