Police chase in Leventina ends in crash in Piumogna tunnel: three injured on A2

On Thursday evening, a 58-year-old driver, a Swiss citizen living in the canton of Zurich, triggered a long police chase on the Leventina stretch of the A2 motorway, which ended in a head-on collision inside a motorway tunnel. The driver and two police officers were injured in the crash.

Shortly before 9.30pm, in the area of Faido, the man, who was driving north, began overtaking other vehicles on the emergency lane. He then continued driving in the middle of the carriageway, slowing down the traffic behind him. Several road users reported the incident to the police, who immediately launched a pursuit.

Once caught up with by a patrol car, the 58-year-old accelerated in an attempt to shake off the officers, driving at high speed and ignoring the traffic lights that the joint alarm centre (CECAL) had activated to manage the operation safely.

The crash in the Piumogna tunnel

Near the Gotthard road tunnel, the fugitive reversed direction and drove for about ten kilometres against the flow of traffic. The chase then changed direction again and, after the driver forced his way through a roadblock, ended in a head-on collision with the police patrol car inside the Piumogna tunnel.

Officers from the cantonal police, firefighters from the Centro Intervento San Gottardo and from Biasca, UT4 staff, and rescuers from Tre Valli Soccorso and Rega responded at the scene. After administering first aid on site, rescuers took both the officers and the driver from Zurich to hospital.

According to an initial medical assessment, the two officers sustained injuries of some severity, while the driver was injured less seriously, with moderate injuries. To allow for the rescue operations and technical investigations, the affected stretch of motorway remained closed to traffic for almost five hours.