12 dead, 42 injured

25 years of the Tauern Tunnel fire: the bitter lessons learned

The black cloud of smoke above the Tauern Tunnel portal - an unforgettable image of a catastrophe.(Bild: Freiwillige Feuerwehr Flachau)

One of Austria's biggest disasters happened 25 years ago today: the fire tragedy in the Tauern Tunnel cost twelve lives. The "Krone" remembers and talks to an accident expert about the "impetus for safety".

They are unforgettable images that are etched in many people's memories. Images that shocked then as they do today. The images of the fire disaster in the Tauern Tunnel on the Tauern highway. It all happened on May 29, 1999, exactly 25 years ago.

Rubble and ash inside the tunnel(Bild: Joachim Maislinger)

The accident was caused by a lapse in attention on the part of professional driver Alfred B. (27). On that 29 May, a Saturday with heavy travel, the overtired truck driver had overlooked the construction site-related traffic jam in the tunnel - due to microsleep. The truck driven by the Upper Austrian collided at 50 km/h with a convoy of 13 vehicles in front of a traffic light in the single-tube tunnel.